HouseLannister
macrumors 68040
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Why Apple Rejected a Clamshell-Style Foldable iPhone
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Only on these forums for some vocal minority.
Wowfunhappy
macrumors 68020
The iPhone Air was thinner but not smaller. That's the problem.
A better example would be the iPhone Mini. But the problem with the iPhone Mini is that people like big screens.
I just find it completely absurd to say "the only selling point is the obvious selling point". Well, yeah. Duh. If you don't think enough people will buy it on that basis, fine I guess, Apple has access to much better market research than I do.
Since you don't like my MacBook Air analogy, here are some alternatives. It's like saying "the only point of the AirPods are that they're wireless" or "the only point of the Wii U is that the controller has a screen". You'll notice that one of these products was a complete flop—that's beside the point. The point is, obviously if you take away the one feature that matters, there aren't any features that matter.
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Do we happen to know how well the Android clamshell-style foldables are selling? Because Samsung et al keep manufacturing and marketing them, and they’re not in the business of losing money.
I will say, having tested both styles of foldable, the clamshell form factor instantly felt compelling to me. A big phone that becomes even bigger is fine, I guess—but a big phone that becomes smaller feels much more … user-friendly.
I will say, having tested both styles of foldable, the clamshell form factor instantly felt compelling to me. A big phone that becomes even bigger is fine, I guess—but a big phone that becomes smaller feels much more … user-friendly.
BeatsByTim
Suspended
The problem with foldables has always been that the "bendable glass" is actually really soft plastic that dents up under the smallest of forces. and the mechanism is hard to weather proof. apple knows better
BeatsByTim
Suspended
I completely agree. I want to cry every time I pull it out of my pocket. It's massive and I hate it.
If there's one redeeming feature of the iPhone 17, it's the new gorilla glass. There's basically zero micro scratches so far. Everything else is pretty much a useless update at the expense of perfect size.
And the part I really really really didn't appreciate until having the 17 is that there's effectively no more screen real estate. They just made everything in the UI bigger! The icons are bigger. The text it bigger. Why??? You make me carry a larger phone and don't even give me more space!
Benjamin Nabulsi
macrumors 6502a
Apple considered but abandoned plans for a flip-style foldable iPhone because it didn't create compelling new use cases, according to Weibo leaker Instant Digital. Apple reportedly felt that it was an "unnecessary" design because the biggest selling point would have been its smaller size when folded.
The split at the middle also caused issues with internal space, limiting battery capacity and leaving less space for camera components. Apple would have had to compromise on the rear camera system. Instant Digital suggests that if Apple wanted a smaller iPhone, the company would introduce a smaller slab-style model instead.
There have been two distinct periods when rumors suggested Apple was considering an iPhone that folds in half like a clamshell. The first rumors surfaced years ago before reports shifted toward Apple's work on the larger book-style foldable iPhone that's coming in 2026, and the second came in February 2026 when rumors indicated Apple was once again evaluating the design.
It's not clear if Instant Digital is referring to the earlier rumors or the more recent rumors from February, but the wording suggests the latter.
Samsung has long had two foldable smartphone styles, offering both the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip, but smaller-sized iPhones have not done well. Apple had a 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini and an iPhone 13 mini, but the device was discontinued after two generations because it sold poorly.
Given Apple's struggle to sell more compact iPhones like the iPhone mini, it may not be surprising that a clamshell-style foldable has been shelved for now.
Article Link: Why Apple Rejected a Clamshell-Style Foldable iPhone
So the poorly sold Apple Vision Pro is there to stay but iPhone flip or mini is no go.
It sounds like Vision Pro is cook’s babe while mini and flip are not.
Naraxus
macrumors 68030
The Mini didn't sell. It ain't coming back. Ever. Get over it.
I rather buy something like AVP lite for 2 grand that can tether mac, iPhone and iPad than fold. Mini was a flop, the 13 mini numbers were abysmal.
blairh
macrumors 604
I believe we will see a clamshell iPhone in a few years.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
I would switch to an Apple flip phone soooo fast: I need texting (for clients/fam), GPS (for real estate directions to new listings), and the camera. That's it. Well, and music, to stream in the cars.
Apple considered but abandoned plans for a flip-style foldable iPhone because it didn't create compelling new use cases, according to Weibo leaker Instant Digital. Apple reportedly felt that it was an "unnecessary" design because the biggest selling point would have been its smaller size when folded.
The split at the middle also caused issues with internal space, limiting battery capacity and leaving less space for camera components. Apple would have had to compromise on the rear camera system. Instant Digital suggests that if Apple wanted a smaller iPhone, the company would introduce a smaller slab-style model instead.
There have been two distinct periods when rumors suggested Apple was considering an iPhone that folds in half like a clamshell. The first rumors surfaced years ago before reports shifted toward Apple's work on the larger book-style foldable iPhone that's coming in 2026, and the second came in February 2026 when rumors indicated Apple was once again evaluating the design.
It's not clear if Instant Digital is referring to the earlier rumors or the more recent rumors from February, but the wording suggests the latter.
Samsung has long had two foldable smartphone styles, offering both the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip, but smaller-sized iPhones have not done well. Apple had a 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini and an iPhone 13 mini, but the device was discontinued after two generations because it sold poorly.
Given Apple's struggle to sell more compact iPhones like the iPhone mini, it may not be surprising that a clamshell-style foldable has been shelved for now.
Article Link: Why Apple Rejected a Clamshell-Style Foldable iPhone
The ability to actually disengage doomscrolling would be absolute soooo good for my brain.
PLEASE EFFING DO THIS APPLE.
Apple user since 1994.
nachodorito
macrumors member
if they released this phone in a rainbow of colors (like, the iphone 13 or macbook neo) they'd sell a trizillion dollars
The Air has the same front facing camera, which I think is what most buyers of the Air would want.
But yes. Their words don't really carry a lot of weight lately. They'll say whatever they want about things no one can prove.
That's a shame.
So still no iPhone for me... All the current models are too big, for my liking.
Size-wise I loved the iPhone 4. That's the size I would want to see come back! But not gonna happen.
So I had hopes for an "iPhone Flip" that might just be small enough when closed. I prefer an overall small footprint over thinness. I don't mind if a folded phone is a bit thicker, as long as it is not as wide and as long as all the other iPhones.
I do understand that such a size is not for everyone. But Apple being such a large company, they need to start diversifying their phone portfolio at some point. Not everyone wants a phablet. Even if smaller phones won't sell as much as phablets, to have a rounded out portfolio Apple will have to cater to those customers too eventually.
Heck, Apple just rounded out their laptop portfolio at the low end with the Neo model.
They need a similar device in the iPhone range too. And no, the 17E is too big in my opinion. It needs to be smaller than that.
They should have just kept the iPhone mini around, worked on it a bit more, even if it was not for everyone...
So still no iPhone for me... All the current models are too big, for my liking.
Size-wise I loved the iPhone 4. That's the size I would want to see come back! But not gonna happen.
So I had hopes for an "iPhone Flip" that might just be small enough when closed. I prefer an overall small footprint over thinness. I don't mind if a folded phone is a bit thicker, as long as it is not as wide and as long as all the other iPhones.
I do understand that such a size is not for everyone. But Apple being such a large company, they need to start diversifying their phone portfolio at some point. Not everyone wants a phablet. Even if smaller phones won't sell as much as phablets, to have a rounded out portfolio Apple will have to cater to those customers too eventually.
Heck, Apple just rounded out their laptop portfolio at the low end with the Neo model.
They need a similar device in the iPhone range too. And no, the 17E is too big in my opinion. It needs to be smaller than that.
They should have just kept the iPhone mini around, worked on it a bit more, even if it was not for everyone...
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That phone looks idiotic. A solution in search of a problem. Now if they open to something massive that's one thing, but a folding in half regular iPhone makes no sense.
Juanchi007
macrumors member
Two things:
1) A thinner, lighter, premium phone yet featuring a larger display provides a broader and more requested feature-set than “it’s a regular, actually worse iPhone, but it flips shut.” The tradeoffs were more worth it, but I understand that’s subjective.
2) This tradeoff has proven to be untenable for Apple, with market research indicating users have not embraced the Air (largely because of its lack of a dual-camera system in addition to perceived battery limitations). For this reason, Apple is rumored to be engineering two cameras into the next iteration of the iPhone Air.
Why repeat the same mistakes?
Not really, because it doesn’t actually get smaller, it just changes shape. The advantage of a tablet that folds into a phone is that you can now fit a tablet in your pocket reasonably. When you fold a phone in half… first of all, worse case scenario it folds into nothing you can use, best case scenario they add a screen to the outside and it becomes a less useable form of what you had before you folded it.. I mean maybe its a fun novelty thing to unfold the phone like the old days, or have a tiny outside screen that won’t scale well for modern apps.. but that seems like Android territory throwing spaghetti at the wall… but anyway the folding to make it smaller thing… yeah its the same size still… however instead of it sitting nicely against your leg unobtrusively sliding down into your pocket just far enough to make it easy to take back out… it is now a chonk square brick awkwardly down in your pocket that you will feel all day long pressing weirdly again your leg in one concentrated area.. when it isn’t bouncing around awkwardly.
We moved to FaceID, and USB C, because even though it seems like something small and easy to do, smart phones are pulled out and opened dozens to hundreds of times a day and all those little extra annoyances of fiddling around with different chargers and putting in pin numbers add up. Not many people want to move to digging into their pocket, reorienting a square that has turned in your pocket, and then having to open the device up, just to see the ping they heard was just a spam notification.
At the end of the day you gain nothing and lose something. An iphone folded in half does nothing but add more steps to using your phone and make you pant leg feel weird.
Unbelievably frustrating if they shelved the clam shell. I’ve been waiting for 10 years for this style of iPhone. If this is the case then I believe it’s official that they are out of touch with their consumers.
Depends on your perspective and expectations. I have an iPhone Air. I use the camera regularly. I don't really notice much of a difference over the cameras I had with the 15 Pro Max it replaced. Haven't felt a single compromise since in camera capabilities or photos since I've had this phone.