Apple’s iPhone 17 got here and went and whereas we actually love the iPhone 17 Professional and its vibrant cosmic orange colour, I am unable to assist however be upset that the long-rumored foldable iPhone Flip wasn’t a part of the corporate’s September launch occasion. Most Android phone-makers, together with Samsung, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Honor are a number of generations into their very own folding telephone lineups, and it is starting to really feel like Apple is late to the social gathering. That is perhaps an issue.
Apple dominates within the premium telephone class, however foldables — which match into the premium house by way of value — are already nipping at its heels, with Motorola telling CNET that 20% of shoppers shopping for its Razr foldable jumped ship from Apple. In the meantime, Samsung is within the seventh technology of its Flip and Fold collection. As Lisa Eadicicco found throughout a go to to Seoul, “foldables are in all places” in Samsung’s house nation of South Korea.
Would Apple go along with a smaller format just like the Galaxy Z Flip collection?
With practically each main Android phone-maker coming into the foldable market, Apple dangers dropping potential prospects. It additionally runs the chance of letting a rival like Samsung turn into the go-to identify 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 telephone arrives to need to change to iOS.
Apple is unlikely to be apprehensive. It is estimated that round 20 million foldables from all producers had been offered worldwide in 2023, whereas Apple reportedly offered 26.5 million iPhone 14 Professional Max handsets within the first half of that 12 months alone. In 2024, foldable gross sales had been flat — and 2025 is not fairing significantly better, in response to analysts at CounterPoint Analysis, though Samsung did report report numbers of preorders for its newest foldable. Clearly, Apple feels it has but to overlook the boat.
The iPhone 15 Professional Max is an excellent telephone. However what if it may bend?
Apple has at all times discovered success in biding its time, observing the trade and launching its personal tackle a product when it is prepared. Apple did not invent telephones, tablets, smartwatches or computer systems, nevertheless it discovered methods to take current merchandise and make them extra helpful, extra helpful 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 at the moment.
For me, I have to see Apple’s tackle the foldable telephone. I’ve written earlier than about how upset I’m in foldables. I have been a cell reporter for over 14 years and telephones have turn into more and more uninteresting as they’ve converged to turn into slight variations on the identical rectangular slab.
Learn extra: Finest Flip Telephone for 2025
Foldables promised one thing new, one thing modern, 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 don’t seem to be a revolution in how we work together with our telephones. Not in the best way that the arrival of the touchscreen was after we had been nonetheless pushing buttons to kind out texts.
I did hope that Google’s Pixel Fold can be the telephone to catapult the foldable ahead, and whereas the current Pixel 10 Professional Fold — the second technology of Google’s foldable — does supply some nice updates, it nonetheless would not supply any form 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 an honest telephone, nevertheless it would not drive the class ahead in any significant approach.
That innovation will not simply come from the product design. Apple works intently with its third-party software program builders, and it is that enter that will assist a folding iPhone turn into genuinely helpful. My largest grievance round foldables proper now could be that whereas the {hardware} is first rate, the gadgets are basically simply operating commonplace 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 is not tough to see why; the customers aren’t there in ample numbers but to justify the time and expense to adapt their software program throughout quite a lot of display sizes. The a number of folding codecs already out there imply Android foldables face the identical fragmentation concern 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 have the ability 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 anticipate 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.
In brief, I do not need to be bored by expertise anymore. Apple, it is over to you.
I Took 600+ Photographs With the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max. Take a look at My Favorites