Malcolm Owen
Apple is still thinking about making a foldable iPad, a report claims, a prospect that has surfaced repeatedly but has yet to result in a usable product.
Foldable smartphones had their moment with Samsung's launch of the Galaxy Fold, with potential product such as the Apple Fold repeatedly raised in rumors and speculation at the time of its introduction. While the iPhone is where the attention is, the iPad has always been a viable alternative for rumors to consider.
In a paywalled report by DigiTimes, Apple is said to have already been working on its own foldable smartphone for years. A supply chain source adds that Apple is also keen to extend the concept "to the tablet sector."
The report doesn't go into any details about the long-rumored foldable iPad, but the concept has surfaced a number of times in the past.
Sooner than you think
The folding iPad concept could come to fruition in the not so distant future, with analysts believing it could arrive in 2024.
In October 2022, CCS Insight forecast a foldable iPad will arrive in 2024 ahead of a foldable iPhone release.
This was seemingly echoed by Samsung, a major display supplier to Apple, the following November. Samsung Mobile Experience apparently met with suppliers and repeated the sentiment of a 2024 foldable device announcement, but that it wouldn't be for an iPhone.
By January, famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expressed that a folding iPad with a carbon fiber stand could be released in 2024. However, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman doubted the claims as sources didn't mention anything about a foldable iPad in 2024.
Display Supply Chain Consultants Ross Young offered in January that he had heard about a 20.5-inch foldable notebook destined for 2025, but nothing on a 2024 foldable iPad.
In February, Gurman added that a 20-inch foldable device, potentially an iPad or a form of notebook, could arrive by 2025.
Supplier work
For there to be a foldable iPad, Apple has to work closely with suppliers to create the display. Unlike a normal iPad display, a foldable version can't be made using traditional methods, and requires a lot of development and collaboration between Apple and its suppliers on the matter.
Reports have surfaced over the years of Apple working with main display suppliers LG Display and Samsung Display on folding screens. In September 2022, Apple wanted hybrid OLED panels to be developed using both plastic and glass as a substrate.
In July, Samsung seemed to leak that a foldable product was on the way, though not necessarily what the product was. While it could've been a foldable iPad, it could also have been a foldable all-screen MacBook Pro, using half the display as a keyboard.
Patents
Apple has applied for many patents over the years for items that could reply on foldable displays, especially iPads and MacBooks.
For example, hinges have repeatedly appeared over the years, explaining how an iPad could effectively become a MacBook by a folding middle section. The patents have evolved to become more complex, detailing how the screen can be protected during a typically difficult procedure.
Further protecting the folding system, Apple has also considered how a foldable device's display can be protected from occasional drops. In one instance, this could be protected by retracting or releasing the hinge mechanism, so that the edges of the device are impacted by a surface instead of the display itself.
Whatever Apple comes up with for a foldable iPad, and if it ever actually releases one, it will have put a lot of thought into the idea before making it a reality.
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William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
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6 Comments
Sounds like a great future product to ignore.
The only issue I have is that the foldable devices tend to be almost a generation behind flagship chips or the cameras aren’t the best.
Not good enough. They need to catch up with the Google Wad. That's the smartphone you wad into a ball and shove in a pocket. Nothing less will do.
Last week I watched a guy on the train using a foldable phone for about 20 minutes. He seemed to have no trouble with it, although I noticed some of the icons were covered by the folding crease and he avoided trying to tap those (he used a stylus extensively).
And then he put it away and switched to an iPhone - I'm guessing switching from a work device to a personal one. Or maybe his hands/wrists were getting tired from the extra weight.
I don't see the value of a foldable phone, but a foldable iPad might make sense - especially if we're talking about a second screen of the same size, as though the keyboard half of a laptop was replaced.