Report: Apple Exploring 20-Inch All-Screen Foldable MacBook, But Foldable iPhone Delayed Until 2025

[jlc1978]

At the moment, I’m not really interested in foldable iPhones. Apple needs to get it right.

For the upcoming years, Apple just needs to focus on using higher-end materials such as high-grade titanium, iron, sapphire glass. This is what will appeal the consumers the most.

Folding MacBook would be awesome. Imagine how convenient it will become to travel with it.

I see two issues:

1. If you unfold it to be a large screen you need a way to keep it standing as well as carry an external keyboard. I have Apple's keyboard/trackpad case for my iPad and it worked great; however adapting that sort of design for a 20" display would be a kludge.

2. I can't imagine typing all day on a touchscreen. No feedback unless Apple builds in a haptic capability but even then it's hard to distinguish keys. Some might say - voice recognition via Siri but who wants what the are typing to be heard by every all the time? Would be a mess on a plane or in an office.

I made a slight change to your post. Someone probably said something similar in the early 80's when the first portable "laptops" started hitting the market. Obviously it took the better part of two decades to work out the bugs regarding "engineering, reliability, quality and usability issues" to make them viable products worth investing in.

Will it be viable at some point? Maybe, although I think the whole laptop concept will have evolved before then. The concept is essentially a folding iPad with whatever becomes of MacOS inside. By the time it becomes viable iPadOS/MacOS may be the same thing.

As for the old sewing machine portables, they really didn't represent that much of a departure from the existing human interface in terms of look and feel. Only difference wa screen size and luggability.

 

[Unity451]

And you thought the butterfly keyboard was bad...

 

[DFZD]

These are all gimmicks. The technology is clearly not hear to make such devices. This includes the under display camera. Apple better focus its resources on new categories like AR headsets and make them affordable Tim.

 

[UsernameAlreadyInUse]

This would explain the odd venture with the Touchbar on the MBP.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Already in the works 😩. Similar to this? It folds!

View attachment 1962660

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Look Ma, no doors, no windows.

 

[Autumnwolf2015]

I’m just not sure if I like the idea of a foldable phone/tablet. I mean, I’m all for innovation/new technology, but the biggest concern I have for a foldable phone or iPad, is if over time it develops a crease down the middle of the screen. I was playing around with a few Samsung phones that folded and they had this issue.

 

[Klapper.cz]

All we need is iPad Pro M1+ to run desktop apps. This insistence on separating same HW into "toy" iPad with touch and all non touch laptops is holding back the whole industry.

 

[inkswamp]

Exactly! We’re on Fold 3 and it’s getting better by the year. In a couple of years, I think Samsung would likely have it vastly improved and the minor compromises will be gone. We’re getting there, just 2-3 years away before it’s much improved.

Have you considered a career in Samsung's marketing department? They've been saying 2-3 years before it's much improved for over a decade.

I'm ignoring this tech until it actually works as advertised. Also, as interesting a concept as it is, I've never been clear on what problem all this effort solves.

 

[nfl46]

Have you considered a career in Samsung's marketing department? They've been saying 2-3 years before it's much improved for over a decade.

I'm ignoring this tech until it actually works as advertised. Also, as interesting a concept as it is, I've never been clear on what problem all this effort solves.

No, I haven’t.

Jeez. Give it time! You still can get your S22’s. So, it’s not like the Fold has replaced their popular S line.

 

[n-evo]

Sure why not after the blazing success of the Touch Bar.

 

[Danfango]

Sounds to me like you think companies should keep chasing the technology. How else do you think they're going to work out the problems we've seen with early iterations?

No one's forcing you to buy anything, and the alternatives certainly aren't going away any time soon.

This isn’t something you iterate out. That’s a software mindset where the cost of failure is low.

Flexibility and durability are always trade offs. At best we can improve durability but that will still be a major compromise compared to displays which do not fold or bend.

There is a sweet spot we’re heading to. If you look at old mobile phones versus new ones, the new ones have the fewest possible moving and mechanical parts because they are always the least durable ones. That’s 20 years of engineering by tens of thousands of people to get into that situation. Throwing that under a bus and making the entire damn thing a hinge with the most fragile part of the device actually part of the hinge is at best retarded, at worst thoroughly disingenuous engineering discipline.

Edit: this is one of the things I love about apple. They let people learn the hard lessons then produce a tidy well engineered product which is a good set of compromises (excluding the butterfly keyboard which was a **** show ?). Let Samsung burn this one out and give us some incremental
improvements please.

 

[Klapper.cz]

Have you considered a career in Samsung's marketing department? They've been saying 2-3 years before it's much improved for over a decade.

I'm ignoring this tech until it actually works as advertised. Also, as interesting a concept as it is, I've never been clear on what problem all this effort solves.

While the proposition to have simple phone screen that's able to become larger sounds good, the major problem having nice usable phone screen with non-square tablet screen might not be solvable.
I kind of like the OPPO Find N latest approach, to make the phone screen not so tall, but as tablet is still not wide enough for a classic media consumption. Having 7.2" Huawei Mate 20 X for both functions is still better way to go for me.

 

[Freeangel1]

2025 boys. going to be a boring couple of years.

20 " all screen MacBook YUCK.

Mac is definitely going the way of IOS and iPad. Looks just like an iPad with on screen keyboard. YUCK.

 

[cwwilson]

Hmmmm I dunno I really like the keyboard as is on my MBA and I use the Smart Keyboard cover on my iPad Pro.

What would interest me is that this could point to a new category of MacBooks, maybe a MacBook Touch?! This would also be a grand undertaking of MacOS as we know it, bridging the gap even more with iOS.

 

[falainber]

So, if Apple does release a foldable phone in 2025, they will be 6...7 years behind Samsung. It sounds like the gap between Samsung is growing.

 

[Danfango]

2025 boys. going to be a boring couple of years.

20 " all screen MacBook YUCK.

Mac is definitely going the way of IOS and iPad. Looks just like an iPad with on screen keyboard. YUCK.

Ah cmon I got my old Intel Core Duo iMac out of the cupboard the other day. It’s running 10.4. There’s not a huge difference between that and Monterey other than some UI changes and some tidy up.

 

[JoeDezibel]

Please, no!

 

[44267547]

I think a foldable device needs to happen….at some point.

But I don’t see Apple really prioritizing a foldable device, when there’s so many things happening right now in the tech sector that are more important. Is the general public willing to pay for these types of prices for a folding device that’s potentially worth thousands? I doubt it. I think there’s probably more advancements to foldable device and hopefully by the time 2025 arrives when this product is allegedly debuting, the battery technology will continue to improve or even change. That’s what I think needs to happen first, is battery technology needs to mature, potentially making these devices not too thick, but provide adequate usage without having to recharge to often.

 

[gaximus]

How can something be ”delayed” if it never had a release date. It’s still only rumored to be a product.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I would love a folding iPhone..

The size when carrying it around is a really key reason I still use an SE1

 

[jmgregory1]

For years I’ve thought that a laptop is the perfect product for a folding screen device.

Regardless of whether we’re talking a phone sized device or a laptop with foldable screen, in both cases the ultra thin glass with plastic covering is going to be the weak point and far more prone to damage, especially given how a laptop uses keyboard touch as the primary input method. And for all those people who are going to tell me that glass companies are advancing with the strength of their foldable glass panels - you can’t overcome physics of a crystalline substrate and have a rigid / hard glass that also happens to be foldable (soft).

The only thing I can see Apple doing, or perhaps Samsung, is using a thicker glass panel for rigidity, but then sanding / routering away glass material at the spine to make it more flexible just where it needs to be (in case this idea hasn’t been thought of or tested already, I’m copyrighting it here).

 

[Zoboomafoo]

?
And I would assume they covered the Apple Logo to avoid giving it free publicity?

Just to confirm, you’re aware this Star Trek screenshot predates the iPad by few years (decades)?

 

[_Spinn_]

Apple needs to do foldables right. They aren't going to put out something crappy like Samsung's first few attempts. I would rather Apple take their time on this. If I had to get a folding device today, I like the approach that the Surface Duo takes rather than having a plastic screen that bends.

Personally what I would like to see in a future iPhone is the ability to dock it to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and use it like a iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard.

 

[JosephAW]

Please no, Scrollable yes, Foldable no.

 

[Danfango]

Just to confirm, you’re aware this Star Trek screenshot predates the iPad by few years (decades)?

Kubrick got there in 1968. So it predates Apple as well.