Apple's working on two foldable iPhones, Don't expect them anytime soon

While just about every smartphone manufacturer is currently working on foldable devices and has one or more available for purchase, one of the big names is missing. That’s Apple. Over the past few years, we’ve heard that Apple is working on a foldable or two, but that’s about it.

Today, we’re hearing from a reputable source, The Information, that Apple is working on at least two iPhones that fold widthwise like a clamshell. The publication cited someone who has direct knowledge of the situation. The Information is generally very accurate with their reporting, so this should be taken with a grain of salt still, but it is very likely to be happening.

Mass production plans are not set for 2024 or 2025, so we’re still a few years out from being able actually to buy an iPhone Flip. This could mean Apple’s first foldable won’t launch until 2027 or later, which would put Apple nearly a decade behind competitors like Samsung.

Apple has also reportedly approached at least one manufacturer in Asia for components. It’s also said that Apple is looking to do two different sizes of foldable iPhones.

Foldables won’t really take off until Apple does it

On the Android side of things, we’ve been using foldables for the past many years. I reviewed the first Galaxy Fold back in 2019, which seems like forever ago. And Apple is still a few years away from mass producing their own foldable.

A big reason for Apple taking its time here is that they need to secure components for tens of millions of devices, versus some other manufacturers only selling a few thousand, or maybe a few hundred thousand. This is the case with the iPhone in general and why some things take longer to come to the iPhone, especially on the hardware front. Apple sells 100 million iPhones in each cycle, whereas competitors need ten or more models to get even close to that; Apple does it with four.

But, once Apple puts out its own foldable, that’s when foldables will start to take off. We’ve seen this play out before with the headphone jack, with the charger in the box, and perhaps more importantly, with wireless charging. Sure, Android and even webOS had it for many years before the iPhone. But it didn’t really take off until the iPhone added it in 2017.