The most important smartphone makers, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, LG, Lenovo and Motorola, have revealed their plans for future folding phones. Will Apple decide to get into a futuristic folding mobile car?
Definitely yes, although it probably takes longer than the rest of the companies. Apple has filed a patent for the folding smartphone, and is believed to have ensured the supply of the folding screen.
Just don’t expect a folding iPhone until at least 2020 or 2021, if Apple finally decides to launch with one of these new mobile phones.
In this article we analyze when Apple can launch a folding iPhone, if it should get on the train or simply focus on other tasks that the public requests with more enthusiasm.
Why should Apple make a folding iPhone?
The folding iPhone can be a very attractive device due to the conceptual illustration created by Dutch industrial designer Roy Gilsing for folding iPhones.
These pictures perfectly illustrate the idea of a folding iPhone that can be opened to become an iPad. However, when looking at this type of product, various questions come to mind:
Would more people be encouraged to buy an iPhone if it was foldable? Will the price be outrageously exaggerated? Would iPhone and iPad users prefer to have both devices in one? Will they stop selling the iPad?
We are not completely convinced about this idea of folding iPhone. Folding screen technology can surprise us in many ways and even grab our attention, but we are not sure how practical it can be.
For that reason, we were quite surprised to make sure that Apple would be reuniting with Huawei and Samsung on the folding smartphone train.
Samsung and Lenovo had talked about their folding phones since spring 2018, and now Samsung says that its phone will be ready for sale in April 2019.
Folding iPhone release date
Apple is hardly the first to launch a product. The iPod was not the first music player. The iPhone was not the first smartphone. The iPad was not the first tablet. And the Apple Watch was not the first smartwatch or smartwatch.
But Apple tended to climb to the top of the product arena as the company hopes and then refines the product and makes it something more intuitive and superior to the competition. Apple’s strategy of being the best is not the first.
So when can we expect Apple to launch a folding iPhone?
The first prediction is that Apple will launch a folding smartphone in 2020 or it may be later.
In July 2018, a Korean Times source stated that Apple is developing a folding iPhone, but that it will not be released before 2020, and possibly even later.
Some analysts have recorded their predictions that Apple will launch a folding iPhone sometime in the future.
In 2018, Bank of America analysts Merrill Lynch claimed that Apple was working on a folding iPhone that would be launched within two years. CNBC reported in March that analyst Vamsi Mohan, citing several Apple suppliers, said: “Our checks also show that Apple will have a foldable phone (which could potentially double as a tablet) for launch in 2020″ But is working with suppliers. ” 2018
Mohan made his claims after meeting with several Apple suppliers in Asia.
We can be sure of one thing, if the folding phone is a failure then the folding iPhone will never happen – until Apple finds out why it doesn’t work and decides to prove it with their product Does.
How do we know that iPhone will launch a folding smartphone?
As much as we question whether a folded iPhone is a good idea or a bad idea, the reality is that there is no escape: Apple is at least considering launching this type of phone in the market. Why?
Evidence 1. Screen orders
The rumor of folding iPhone is nothing new. This has been going on since 2016, when it was revealed that Apple, it seems, had given LG an order for its folding OLEDs.
A report by The Bell, published in The Investor, citing anonymous industry sources, stated in October 2017 that LG was working with Apple on a folding iPhone. According to that report, production of folding iPhones was expected to begin in 2019.
In December 2016, a report by ET News appeared to support this claim. Apparently, LG was going to make mass screens in 2018 and supply them to Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Evidence 2. Patents
There is also the fact that Apple has patents, and has made additional patent applications, for flexible display devices.
In October 2018, a patent for “Flexible Display Devices” was filed, which was published in February 2019. The patent application includes many illustrations, such as the one shown below.
That patent is a continuation of previous patent applications filed in September 2016, 2014 and 2011.
It includes the following patents related to folding devices that have been granted to Apple over the years: patent number 10,104,787, patent number 9,504,170 and patent number 8,787,016.
The October 2018 patent application combines all those patents and patent applications and the majority of the document refers to the hinge where the mesh is twisted and how it works. The full patent application is detailed here.
There is also a 2016 patent for a flexible iPhone, shown below (patent 9,947,882).
It is described as follows: “An electronic device, consisting of: a casing that bends on the curve axis; and a display on the casing that bends on the curve axis, consists of a protective layer consisting of the first material and the formation of a The rigid part is a flexible part made of a second material, which is different from the first material. “More information here.
Of course, the fact that Apple has a patent does not mean that a device will see the light of day. It is also not necessary that this patent will be used for future iPhones, but may also be related to future laptops.
Conceptual images
Along with the earlier images created by Roy Zeeling, there is a collection of images created by the website, LetsGoGigital.
These show a small device the size of an iPhone that folds in half. However, we are not sure what the purpose of such a device would be.
Here is another image of Roy Gilsing for Foldable News:
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