For a while now we’ve been hearing reports of Apple working on a foldable iPhone and now there’s a bit more information to share. The foldable iPhone will reportedly surpass all other foldable phones on the market in terms of technology and Apple expects to move a lot more of them than the competition.
Apple’s foldable will — like most of the iPhone lineup — use screens supplied by Samsung Display. LG Display will not be supplying panels for the phone as Samsung has an exclusivity deal with Apple. That makes sense because the foldable iPhone is also expected to resemble the Galaxy Fold phones and Samsung’s experience will come in handy.
Claims of this phone surpassing other foldables on the market probably mean two things:
- A sturdier display that’s harder to break
- An even less noticeable crease
However, I think the reported yearly production goal of 15-20 million units may be a bit too ambitious.
Here’s another product that Apple had high sales expectations for. | Video credit — Apple
We’ve seen this happen before when the company had high sales ambitions for the Apple Vision Pro. That didn’t exactly pan out the way Apple wanted. In fact the Vision Pro even struggled to find enterprise clients which was its main purpose.
The already established Galaxy Fold phones have failed to sell as well as Samsung had hoped. Production goals for the next generation of Fold and Flip phones have been lowered to just around 5 million. Previous production numbers sat below 10 million and failed to sell out because the foldable market just isn’t that big yet.
Either Apple has a lot of faith in how it’s approaching a foldable iPhone or this is another case of overestimating how many people will want to buy your shiniest new gadget.
Production is expected to start in 2026 and a release for the same year is all but confirmed. Apple might surprise everyone with a truly unique foldable that does meet its sales expectations but I wouldn’t hold my breath. There’s also the matter of the next generation Fold overtaking the foldable iPhone by the time the latter is out.