Should Apple make a foldable iPhone?
With other smartphone makers releasing foldable phones, is it time for Apple to join this market?
It’s been just shy of two years since I originally wrote a version of this piece, and with the recent announcement of Samsung’s latest foldable smartphones it seemed like a good time to revisit the topic. Foldable or flexible displays have been talked about for years as the next big thing in display tech, but it’s only been in the last few years that companies have begun bringing smartphones to market with foldable screens. So far Apple has not released a foldable iPhone, and based on the current state of rumors, it doesn’t sound like they’ll have a foldable iPhone for sale this Fall. I think there’s no question though that they’ve been experimenting with foldable display technology in their labs in Cupertino. So the question is, will Apple eventually launch a foldable iPhone? And secondarily, should they?
It’s easy to make an argument in favor of foldable smartphones, at least on paper. The idea is that when closed you have something that’s roughly the size of an iPhone 11 Pro (though almost certainly thicker) that opens up to become a tablet device. It’s pocketable when closed, while giving you room to work with a large screen when open. In theory the ultimate hybrid device that combines an iPhone and an iPad into a single product.
I don’t have strong feelings pro or con on such a device, though admittedly I’m not sure I would want a device like this. In part that may be because I never really liked flip phones either. I recall sometime around 2006 or so I went out for dinner with several of my Apple Retail coworkers. (This was before the iPhone was released, so everyone had non-Apple phones.) I remember we sat down at the table and everyone pulled out their Motorola Razr phones and set them on the table. Everyone, that is, except me. I was the odd man out with my Nokia candy bar phone. So when the iPhone debuted, kicking off the modern smart phone revolution, I was already perfectly suited to the form factor since the iPhone was, and has been ever since, a “candy bar” phone.
Personal preference aside, the foldable phones that are currently on the market are quite expensive. The least expensive units from Samsung come in at $999 for the Galaxy Z Flip 4, and the new Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a whopping $1800! You can spec up an iPhone 13 Pro Max all the way up to $1599 if you go with the 1 TB storage option, but my guess is that Apple only sells a tiny number of units configured that way relative to their full iPhone lineup. (Or even compared with overall iPhone 13 Pro sales.) So consumers are asked to fork over a lot of money for these new foldable phones. At $1800, you’re not far off of the price of two MacBook Airs.
I’m also concerned about reliability. We all know that glass smartphone displays are fragile enough as it is, but how much more fragile are these new foldable displays? Samsung was famously embarrassed when their original Galaxy Fold models were breaking after just a few days as journalists were reviewing them. And it’s not only the displays themselves, but all of the underlying cabling and hinge mechanisms that will have to be durable enough to withstand thousands of openings/closings. Heck, people treat flip phone hinges like fidget toys to play with.
Now my concerns there may be misplaced, and Samsung’s foldable displays have come a long way since that first generation Galaxy Fold debacle. Though they’re still only a small piece of the overall smartphone market, I’ve heard of no major issues around reliability. I also think that this is the kind of thing you have to experience for yourself to be adequately assured. I remember having a lot of concern about the long term durability of the hinge on the AirPods case before I got my first set of AirPods, and that thing has been a tank. I’ve never heard of one breaking.
It’s entirely true that prices will ultimately come down on this new tech, and reliability will likely improve year-over-year. (The starting price for the Galaxy Z Fold is down $200 from two years ago.) So eventually it’s just going to come down to consumer tastes, and I’m not sure we have enough data yet to get a good sense of whether or not foldable smartphones are something consumers actually want. Part of that is surely due to the price difference between a standard smartphone and a foldable one. How many people would choose a foldable smartphone over a non-foldable one if the prices were similar? I could easily see these eventually becoming quite popular, but it’s hard to say in 2022.
Ultimately it’s not surprising that Apple hasn’t yet released a foldable iPhone. Apple’s game is not usually to be the first to market with a concept. They usually wait to enter a market until they feel they can deliver a product that meets their standards. Other technology companies prefer to stand out by being early to market with new technologies. There’s not a right or wrong to that, and the market is most healthy when both types of approaches are in play. In particular, when I look at the Galaxy Z Fold 4 I’m struck by how ugly the large gap is between the display panels near the hinge, and with how large the phone appears when the screen is folded closed. Would Apple bring a folding iPhone to market if it had to accept those design constraints? Maybe, but I certainly don’t think they’d want to.
I’m not clamoring for Apple to release a foldable iPhone, but if they ever do I’ll certainly be interested to see how they approach creating a product around this technology, both from a hardware and software standpoint. Will we find out in 2023? I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to find out.