Apple’s iPhone 17 got here and went and whereas we actually love the iPhone 17 Pro and its vibrant cosmic orange shade, I am unable to assist however be disenchanted that the long-rumored foldable iPhone Flip wasn’t a part of the corporate’s September launch occasion. Most Android phone-makers, including Samsung, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Honor are a number of generations into their very own folding cellphone lineups, and it is starting to really feel like Apple is late to the social gathering. That is likely to be an issue.
Apple dominates within the premium cellphone class, however foldables — which match into the premium house by way of worth — are already nipping at its heels, with Motorola telling CNET that 20% of consumers shopping for its Razr foldable jumped ship from Apple. In the meantime, Samsung is within the seventh era of its Flip and Fold collection. As Lisa Eadicicco found throughout a go to to Seoul, “foldables are everywhere” in Samsung’s dwelling nation of South Korea.
Would Apple go along with a smaller format just like the Galaxy Z Flip collection?
With almost each main Android phone-maker getting into the foldable market, Apple dangers dropping potential clients. It additionally runs the chance of letting a rival like Samsung turn into the go-to title for foldables, which may make it more durable for Apple to make an affect if it will definitely launches its personal system. Moreover, early adopters drawn to foldable tech could also be too entrenched within the Android ecosystem by the point Apple’s cellphone arrives to need to swap to iOS.
Apple is unlikely to be frightened. It is estimated that round 20 million foldables from all producers have been bought worldwide in 2023, whereas Apple reportedly bought 26.5 million iPhone 14 Professional Max handsets within the first half of that 12 months alone. In 2024, foldable gross sales have been flat — and 2025 is not fairing a lot better, in keeping with analysts at CounterPoint Research, though Samsung did report record numbers of preorders for its newest foldable. Clearly, Apple feels it has but to overlook the boat.
The iPhone 15 Professional Max is an outstanding cellphone. However what if it may bend?
Apple has at all times discovered success in biding its time, observing the business and launching its personal tackle a product when it is prepared. Apple did not invent telephones, tablets, smartwatches or computer systems, however it discovered methods to take current merchandise and make them extra helpful, extra beneficial in day-to-day life and — dare I say — extra thrilling. It is why the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac strains dominate the market immediately.
For me, I have to see Apple’s tackle the foldable cellphone. I’ve written earlier than about how disappointed I am in foldables. I have been a cellular reporter for over 14 years and telephones have turn into more and more boring as they’ve converged to turn into slight variations on the identical rectangular slab.
Learn extra: Best Flip Phone for 2025
Foldables promised something new, one thing revolutionary, one thing that briefly sparked some pleasure in me, however a number of years in, that pleasure has dwindled to the purpose of being extinguished. They’re effective merchandise and whereas I just like the novelty of a display that bends, they are not a revolution in how we work together with our telephones. Not in the way in which that the arrival of the touchscreen was after we have been nonetheless pushing buttons to kind out texts.
I did hope that Google’s Pixel Fold could be the phone to catapult the foldable forward, and whereas the current Pixel 10 Professional Fold — the second era of Google’s foldable — does supply some nice updates, it nonetheless does not supply any type of revolution. As an alternative, it feels extra like a “me too” transfer from Google. Ditto for the OnePlus Open. So I am left as a substitute to look towards Apple, an organization with a observe report for product revolutions, to create a brand new tackle the style that genuinely drives ahead how we use our telephones.
Google’s Pixel Fold is a good cellphone, however it does not drive the class ahead in any significant manner.
That innovation will not simply come from the product design. Apple works carefully with its third-party software program builders, and it is that enter that might assist a folding iPhone turn into genuinely helpful. My greatest criticism round foldables proper now’s that whereas the {hardware} is first rate, the gadgets are primarily simply working normal variations of Android with a handful of UI tweaks thrown in. They’re common telephones that simply occur to bend.
Few Android builders are embracing the folding format, and it isn’t troublesome to see why; the customers aren’t there in adequate numbers but to justify the time and expense to adapt their software program throughout a wide range of display sizes. The a number of folding codecs already out there imply Android foldables face the identical fragmentation subject that has plagued the platform because the starting. Android-based foldables are merely a harder platform for builders to construct for than common telephones. Apple would be capable to change that, because it proved with the iPhone and iPad.
Apple did not invent pill computer systems, however its iPad line revolutionized the class.
Given Apple’s shut relationships with top-tier builders — to not point out its personal huge developer group — I count on an eventual Apple foldable to supply improvements that make it extra than simply an iPhone that folds in half.
And I really hope it does. I need to stay up for tech launches once more. I need to really feel excited to get a brand new gadget in my fingers and really feel that “wow” second as I do one thing transformative for the primary time.
Briefly, I do not need to be bored by expertise anymore. Apple, it is over to you.
