Skip to main content

Apple isn’t making a foldable iPhone anytime soon, so don’t get your hopes up

The foldable iPhone is coming! That’s according to a new Digitimes report, at least. The supply chain-monitoring publication is following the considerable ramp up of production in flexible OLED displays, noting that Samsung Display is aiming to produce 900,000 such panels per month — and even more in the future. The leap in logic then is that this increase in demand will only grow as Digitimes feels Apple is set to enter the foldable phone market in … 2022:

“Digitimes Research believes that Apple will likely step into the foldable smartphone sector in 2022, furthering demand for flexible OLED displays,” the report states.

Recommended Videos

Well, sure. That certainly could happen. It’s also two years away, and there are myriad reasons why it wouldn’t happen. Here’s the thing: It’s pretty easy to make a prediction about something happening two years from now in a rapidly advancing technology world, as there’s a great chance people will a) forget about the prediction or b) give you the benefit of the doubt considering technology evolves so rapidly.

Nobody has a track record of leaking Apple iPhone changes two whole years in advance. Not for small features, and definitely not for a complete form factor change. It’s quite unlikely that Digitimes is doing anything more than making an educated guess based on general industry trends.

Galaxy Z Fold 2
Andrew Martonik/Digital Trends

It’s also just such an easy prediction to make. Every single smartphone company has been testing foldable devices for years. They’d be silly not to, as it’s the next viable smartphone form factor change. The fact that we’ve only seen a few mass-production models from Samsung, Motorola and Huawei isn’t an indication that companies aren’t making them — it’s an indication that only those three have reached a quality and functionality threshold they’re happy with.

Apple undoubtedly has foldable iPhones in the engineering lab. Just like it’s had iPhones of every other possible shape and size, containing every piece of emerging tech as it comes on the market. Apple has some of the smartest minds in technology developing products for the company — they would be completely failing at their jobs if they weren’t investigating the possibility of a foldable iPhone.

Will we see a foldable iPhone introduced in 2022? There are clear issues with the current state of flexible displays, but there’s a good chance that by 2022 the technology will get to a point where even the perfectionists at Apple would be happy with it. But it certainly won’t be Apple’s only iPhone, and there’s little chance that it’d be the main iPhone for the year. And Apple would never put all of its eggs in one (foldable) basket — it could target launching such a phone very late in the year, and scrap it in favor of the “normal” iPhone it has in parallel development. Onward to 2023, then.

Topics
Andrew Martonik
Andrew Martonik is the Editor in Chief at Digital Trends, leading a diverse team of authoritative tech journalists.
The iPhone 17 will reportedly get a new type of Wi-Fi chip
A person using the Apple iPhone 16 Plus.

By this time next year, Apple may have installed its own in-house Wi-Fi chips in all of its phones, or at least one of them.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, a well-known analyst with a trusted record, Apple is working on its own Wi-Fi chips to replace the current ones from Broadcom, but there's not a firm timeline on when they'll arrive (via MacRumors). He says the iPhone 17 Pro might come equipped with this new chip, but other sources suggest it won't get widespread adoption until the iPhone 18.

Read more
Blood oxygen tracking isn’t coming back to the Apple Watch anytime soon
Apple Watch Ultra taking a measurement for blood oxygen levels.

One of the major selling points of Apple Watches in recent years has been the ability to test users’ blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately, ongoing litigation has prevented this feature from being included in Apple Watches sold in the U.S. since January. Now, it seems unlikely that this situation will change soon.

On Friday, a Delaware jury found that health-monitoring technology company Masimo infringed on some of Apple’s earlier smartwatch patents. As a result, Apple received an award of only $250. However, the same jury ruled that Masimo's current watches did not infringe on the patents that Apple accused it of copying. Consequently, an injunction remains in effect in the U.S. that prevents the company from offering blood oxygen tracking on new watches sold in the country.

Read more
Why Apple Health, not the iPhone, will be Apple’s biggest impact on our lives
apple health not the iphone will be biggest impact on our lives

Imagine yourself 20 years from now, and ask yourself the question: What was Apple’s biggest impact on the world? Since the return of the prodigal Steve Jobs in 1997, the California company has unveiled a series of innovations that have heavily impacted how we use technology today.

Apple’s influence is vast, and its sheer market power means it’s a consultant to companies and governments worldwide. It has many products that have had a lasting impact on our lives, not the least of which is the iPhone and how it changed the smartphone industry. Then there’s the iPod and iPad, which created entirely new categories.

Read more