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A Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) report a few days ago claimed that Apple will enter the foldable smartphone market in 2026. The move is expected to turbocharge the foldables market, which will face stagnation next year. Dominated by Samsung and Huawei, the current foldable phone landscape has grown all it can without Apple. According to the report, the foldable iPhone is the holy grail event the market needs.
The claims make some sense, especially as rumors about foldable iPhones and iPads are heating up. Add to that the approaching 20th anniversary of Apple's first-generation iPhone, and a foldable iPhone might be just the kind of design change Apple needs.
However, the DSCC report didn't mention what type of design Apple chose. The only viable choices right now are the fold and flip form factors -- either a smartphone that becomes a tablet, like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, or a clamshell foldable, like the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Apple could very well embrace both designs, just like Samsung did. Yes, we have double-fold foldables in the wild, but Apple would probably not consider them in the near future, especially if it wants to launch a foldable Mac/iPad in 2028.
Ross Young, the CEO of DSCC and a steady source of iPhone leaks, has answered questions about the type of foldable iPhone design Apple will choose, claiming that Apple is going with an iPhone Fold rather than an iPhone Flip.
The comments are buried in an X thread that followed the DSCC report last week. When a user asked whether Apple's foldable iPhone would be a Flip, Fold, or both, Young answered with one word, "Fold."
The display analyst then expanded on the comment, saying that Apple is going for a Fold-style "at the moment."
The same user X user mentioned that most people expect Apple to make a Flip-type of foldable iPhone, asking Ross whether he was sure about Apple's choice.
That's when Young said that Apple reportedly canceled the Flip-type design. The foldable iPhone is a "7.x-inch Fold," he said, adding that he doesn't want to go into too many details about screen sizes on X.
Samsung also entered the foldable market with a Fold-type device, the ill-fated Galaxy Fold whose original design came with a few critical failures that Samsung had to push back the launch by several months. Samsung perfected the Fold design in subsequent iterations. The first-gen Galaxy Z Flip arrived on the scene a year later.
While I favored the Fold design over the Flip, I changed my mind in recent years. I don't think I need a tablet in my pocket. It's clamshell phones like the Motorola Razr and the Galaxy Z Flip that made me dream of a foldable iPhone Flip device.
Take the 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus, which I struggled to carry in my pocket for nearly two months. Flip that phone, and it's a different ball game.
On the other hand, given Apple's rumored roadmap, an iPhone Fold makes sense. I explained why an iPhone 17 Air design is a key piece of the foldable iPhone puzzle. Also, I told you that Apple's rumored 6-inch smart display device will pave the way for software interfaces and displays that could very well benefit a foldable iPhone in the future.
If Apple has settled on the Fold design for the first-gen foldable iPhone, we should see more leaks confirming Ross's claims in the coming year.