Foxconn allegedly testing folding iPhone, projected Sept. 2022 release

Mockup of a foldable iPhone (Source: William Gallagher)

Supply chain reports are claiming that the long-term assembly partner Foxconn is now testing a folding iPhone for Apple, and also that devices may ship starting in September 2022.

Potentially backing up a recent claim that Apple has ordered screens for a foldable iPhone from Samsung, a new report says that Foxconn is now testing such a device. Reportedly, the testing centers on the use of OLED or micro LED, as the choice will affect how production of a final device will be done.

According to China's United Daily News, Apple has asked Foxconn to test the screen, and also the bearings of a folding iPhone device. The bearings, the actual folding element, will reportedly come from multiple suppliers, but the final assembly is to be handled by Foxconn.

Previous reports have claimed only that a folding iPhone may be years away. However, based on information from its unnamed supply chain sources, United Daily News claims that Apple is expected to release the first foldable iPhone from September 2022.

The publication says that folding tests for regular laptops requires them to be opened and closed between 20,000 and 30,000 times. For a folding iPhone, it says Foxconn will conduct over 100,000 opening and closing tests.

This new report gives no details of the design of the folding iPhone, and its sources say that development is constantly changing. However, recent claims by leaker Jon Prosser say that the foldable iPhone will be a two-screen device, similar to the Microsoft Surface Duo.

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28 Comments

JazzMonkey

said about 3 years ago

The Microsoft duo is such a pointless device.

id be shocked if Apple did anything resembling the Duo.

bageljoey

said about 3 years ago

I know people like to make fun of folding mobile devices, I think the problem is that it hasn’t been done well yet. I assume a well thought out and a well done folding device that is durable could be awesome.

I would be glad Apple is working on it—I want to see what they come up with when the technology is there to make it to Apple’s standards.

AppleZulu

said about 3 years ago

Somebody outside of Apple, testing a new Apple prototype design, two years before production. That sounds totally legit.

cloudguy

said about 3 years ago

bageljoey said:

I know people like to make fun of folding mobile devices, I think the problem is that it hasn’t been done well yet. I assume a well thought out and a well done folding device that is durable could be awesome.
I would be glad Apple is working on it—I want to see what they come up with when the technology is there to make it to Apple’s standards.

"People" don't make fun of folding mobile devices. Apple fans do. They make fun of every idea and feature that Android OEMs develop first ... right up until Apple copies it. Another point where you are wrong: while the generation 1 Galaxy Fold had issues, the generation 1 Galaxy Flip - Samsung's second foldable - was good. The generation 2 Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip devices are by all accounts outstanding with the former far exceeding Samsung's sales goals. Now that Samsung has mastered the design and assembly process they are including a substantially cheaper Galaxy Fold (the best seller of the two devices despite costing $500 more) among third generation devices in 2021. By the time Apple releases their version in 2022, Samsung will be on generation 4 of these devices and generation 2 of the cheaper Fan Edition ones.

Look, the idea that "it takes Apple to come along and get things right" is just something that Apple fans come up with to justify getting features years late. Samsung actually has a better mobile payments solution than Apple does because it includes both MST and NFC, making it work at every credit card terminal that stores don't software-block. Despite all the bombastic "air power" claims, wireless charging works the same for Apple devices as it does for Android ones. Apple gave their Apple TV set top box an app store years after Android (Google and Amazon) ones did the same, and it does nothing that they don't do. Apple's OLED screens: ditto, no different from Samsung's. Apple adopted larger screened phones years after Samsung and the rest did, but Samsung still has far more multitasking features to take advantage of the larger screens. And so on.

This will be the same. Apple will adopt this technology after Samsung will have spent 4 years using feedback from customers and app developers refining it (and buying the materials from Samsung that Apple needs to make it). Apple's own solution will only be "better" in the eyes of people who never used the Samsung version in the first place, including all those people who derive some satisfaction out of claiming to have been "a longtime loyal Android buyer who got frustrated, switched to Apple and found their devices much better" but then you ask them basic questions about the very same devices that you actually do or did own and they "respond" by calling you a deluded fanboy and Apple hater and then go quiet.

Also, this is the result of long-range planning from Samsung. Samsung years ago saw that while their Note line was generating good sales, profit margins were low due to R&D costs and the devices having too many features. So they put a 3 prong plan in place.
1. Make the Galaxy Note essentially the Galaxy S with a bigger screen and stylus.
2. Enable stylus support on all their premium phones.
3. End the Galaxy Note line and make foldables their new premium phone.
It took them 6 years but they have finally done it. In 2020 all of their phones that will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875/Exynos 2001 will have S Pen support and the Note line - which forced Apple to respond beginning with the iPhone 6 Plus - is no more. It will have been a great 10 year run for the second most influential smartphone in history behind the original iPhone. So much so that the current iPhone Mini actually has a bigger screen than the original Galaxy Note did!

So yeah, you can tell yourself that "Apple does other people's ideas better" but smartphone sales and Apple's own copying actions say otherwise.

radarthekat

said about 3 years ago

I wrote this here in early 2019. I think it still, mostly, stands...

My John Oliver impression...

Last week Samsung introduced a future-thinking folding phone. Future-thinking in that nobody at present can think of a single reason why we’d want a phone that when folded has a small narrow display and is nearly two and a half times thicker than an iPhone. Future-thinking in that someone, someday, might think of a reason we want a small square tablet with a screen that when touched reminds us of a giant 1980’s membrane switch.

I know, I know, my Apple wool is preventing me from seeing the brilliance of Samsung’s move. All I’m able to perceive here is an attempt to be first. On that score Samsung has won yet another round, another pyrrhic victory for their side of the ledger. And yes, Apple may follow, but not down the same trail Samsung is blazing. For Apple to offer a foldable phone, there still exists some real challenges:

Appropriate hardware technology would have to be available.

First, the display would need to be covered with a non-malleable and scratch-resistant surface; there’s little chance Apple would return to a malleable and markable, plastic display cover. The challenge is that the necessary display properties are, of course, incompatible with folding and are likely to remain so.

Next, the phone when folded will need to be as ready to hand, and pocket, as current iPhones, to which any foldable iPhone, in folded configuration, will be ruthlessly compared. The rumor that Apple may bolster battery capacity in the 2019 models could result in thicker iPhones, which would help in a comparison of a future foldable model. Apple would be settting the stage for a thicker handset with a meaningful enhancement to justify it. But it would still be a significant challenge to then add a second screen layer and not significantly increase the thickness. Perhaps a flattened battery on one side of the fold and all the electronics and cameras on the other fold. Not sure if Samsung did that, or if it’s even viable.

Next there’s the reliability aspect. iPhones, and high-end Android phones, are all very solidly constructed these days, with few or no moving parts. But that doesn’t imply even today’s phones are free of physical wear and tear or immune to extreme conditions. Extreme cold or heat will be significant issues to account for in selecting materials and designing folding phones to yield a similar lifespan compared to their non-folding counterparts. For iPhones that implies a five- or six-year lifespan. Not to mention tensile stresses of the folding process itself.

The only viable solution my limited brain can conceive is two separate displays, each pressed up hard against a lip on a hinge to prevent dust or cookie crumbs intruding. As the phone unfolds, at the last part of the arc, that lip recedes, allowing the two screen edges to come together perfectly, leaving not a single pixel width gap between. How incredibly precise would such a mechanism need to be... boggles the mind. But if it worked, every time, for five or six years, it would allow two glass-covered displays to perfectly come together as one, without a visible seam.

Finally, Apple would need to do one more thing that Samsung has not yet accomplished. Apple would need to determine the reason such a needlessly complex handset should exist. That’s where I take my bet off the table. I’m betting Apple goes a different direction.