Apple is reportedly engaged on its first foldable iPhone, placing the corporate head-to-head with Samsung, a rival that has pioneered foldable telephones since 2019, and Google, which unveiled the Pixel Fold in 2023.
Bloomberg managing editor Mark Gurman, who has an 86.5% accuracy charge relating to Apple rumors, reported on Sunday that Apple will enter the foldable cellphone market within the latter half of 2026.
With merchandise just like the iPhone and Apple Watch, Apple entered every market early and helped form what the mainstream model of the product would seem like.
With the foldable iPhone, Apple will take a unique strategy, utilizing what works for Samsung as a substitute of making a dramatically new interface or creating modern {hardware}. Gurman reported that Apple’s gadget will look just like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold line and incorporate lots of the identical elements, together with foldable OLED screens.
Apple will nonetheless purpose to enhance elements of Samsung’s design, tackling the weaknesses of foldable units just like the seen interior show crease and the interior hinge mechanism. The iPhone maker may also introduce new software program options subsequent yr, particularly designed for foldable telephones.
The value level of an Apple foldable cellphone can be a minimum of $2,000, Gurman stories, which is analogous to choices from Samsung and Google. Samsung’s newest Z Fold 7 is priced at $1,999, whereas the Google Pixel 9 Professional Fold is $1,799.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 smartphone. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
Gross sales of the Samsung Z Fold 7 are larger than the earlier technology, per Bloomberg, and it is obtained optimistic opinions from tech websites. Home windows Central referred to as it “a winner,” whereas Mashable praised the cellphone’s “nearly unbelievably glossy kind issue.” Samsung introduced the cellphone earlier this month, and it is going to be obtainable for buy beginning this Friday.
Although Apple’s foldable iPhone could look just like Samsung’s, it may nonetheless profit from Apple’s attain. Apple holds 57% of the U.S. smartphone market as of the primary quarter of the yr, in comparison with Samsung’s 25%, per Counterpoint Analysis.
Nevertheless, Samsung has traditionally dominated the worldwide foldable smartphone market, promoting over 66% of the 15.9 million foldable telephones bought in 2023, per TrendForce.
Associated: Apple Is Reportedly Creating New Foldable iPads and iPhones. Right here Are the Particulars.
Foldable telephones are a distinct segment class, having by no means accounted for greater than 2% of the smartphone market as an entire, per Counterpoint Analysis. Gurman means that Apple may make it mainstream when it enters the class subsequent yr.
Apple is the third most useful firm on the planet, on the time of writing, with a market capitalization of $3.2 trillion.
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Apple is reportedly engaged on its first foldable iPhone, placing the corporate head-to-head with Samsung, a rival that has pioneered foldable telephones since 2019, and Google, which unveiled the Pixel Fold in 2023.
Bloomberg managing editor Mark Gurman, who has an 86.5% accuracy charge relating to Apple rumors, reported on Sunday that Apple will enter the foldable cellphone market within the latter half of 2026.
With merchandise just like the iPhone and Apple Watch, Apple entered every market early and helped form what the mainstream model of the product would seem like.
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