Apple preparing for folding iPhone with Samsung screen order

AppleInsider

A popular Android leaker believes that Apple has ordered samples of OLED screens to prototype future foldable iPhone models.

The Surface Duo

Apple is in the process of engineering an iPhone with a folding display similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, according to leaker "IceUniverse." The post was made to the Chinese social network Weibo, and translates roughly to: "Apple asked Samsung Display to provide a large sample of foldable phone screens and hoped to provide an exclusive supply of one-year quantity. It seems that it will be turned on."

Rumors of a folding Apple device has been mounting as the rest of the mobile industry introduces folding devices. Patents about the folding iPhone have shown what the final product may be like, with notifications on an external screen and folding open to reveal an iPad-like device.

Another patent shows Apple's research into flexible batteries for such a device, separating the battery cells into different regions. This means the battery could flex or even separate when being folded while still providing power to the device.

Jon Prosser has stated that the foldable iPhone in testing isn't a folding display, but rather a two-display device like the Surface Duo. The device operates on hinges, and the outer display would have Face ID in the bezel.

Apple constantly conducts research for future devices and builds prototypes for machines that may never see the light of day. Given the current rumors, the folding iPhone is likely being considered at the very least. Any shipping device may be years away.

The leaker is known for Android leaks. But "IceUniverse" has previously offered up some information about Apple display technologies from time to time.

beats

Would be the ultimate irony if Apple gets the foldable screen right with Samsung Display as the supplier! While Samsung's foldable knockoffs still break.

pulseimages

Looks like a Nintendo DS. 

jfc_pa

Because doubling the thickness of their devices is just Apple’s style.  

We’ll see. 

dedgecko

Isn’t the iPhone OLED displays already a foldable screen? And this would be a future iPhone prototype. Once those pass muster, then their may be a future iPhone model. Semantics one may argue, but this is how Apple’s designers work if the stories are true.

bluefire1

Samsung came up with it first. Apple will get it right.

dan_dilger

dedgecko said:

Isn’t the iPhone OLED displays already a foldable screen? And this would be a future iPhone prototype. Once those pass muster, then their may be a future iPhone model. Semantics one may argue, but this is how Apple’s designers work if the stories are true.

Yes, Apple tapped Samsung’s flexible OLED panels to deliver the slim bezels of iPhone X a long time ago, folding the display over itself to create a thin, dramatic design that sold massive volumes of ultra premium smartphones. Samsung has never similarly made any high volume phone from its own flexible technology, despite many attempts including the limited run fad of Edge models and the ridiculous $2000+ hinge book fablets 

johnbear

About 5 years behind Samsung. Oh wait, Apple is doing it right;)

80s_apple_guy

Nice pic of the new Microsoft Surface Duo. 

anilu_777

I’d prefer a Surface Duo type rather than a Galaxy Fold type. The Duo is sleek and slim and has a larger folded-out space while the Fold is thick. If it had the option to fold backwards on itself that’s again a plus rather than risk a screen or two exposed in your pocket like the Huawei one. 

seantheman

Apple has to fix iOS and they way developers create apps first, before trying to use foldable displays.

Think about it.  Apple today encourages it's developers to make separate iPhone and iPad apps.  So when a device like Samsung's galaxy fold, or LG V60  opens and closes, it can easily switch between tablet and phone mode, and keep the apps continuity in tact, because it is the same app.   Android and Google from day one encouraged their developers to make one app that supports both phones and tablets.   So if Apple is trying to make a foldable phone that switches between iPhone and iPad, then I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Now I can see Apple making a foldable device like the Galaxy Z fold, or Motorola Razr, which always stays as a phone, but it folds up to be smaller.   That I can see Apple working on, because apps don't have to change.

80s_apple_guy

seantheman said:

Apple has to fix iOS and they way developers create apps first, before trying to use foldable displays.

Think about it.  Apple today encourages it's developers to make separate iPhone and iPad apps.  So when a device like Samsung's galaxy fold, or LG V60  opens and closes, it can easily switch between tablet and phone mode, and keep the apps continuity in tact, because it is the same app.   Android and Google from day one encouraged their developers to make one app that supports both phones and tablets.   So if Apple is trying to make a foldable phone that switches between iPhone and iPad, then I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Now I can see Apple making a foldable device like the Galaxy Z fold, or Motorola Razr, which always stays as a phone, but it folds up to be smaller.   That I can see Apple working on, because apps don't have to change.

That’s why Android tablets have always sucked and failed. Apps need to be different for the different screen sizes etc. 

avon b7

Beats said:

Would be the ultimate irony if Apple gets the foldable screen right with Samsung Display as the supplier! While Samsung's foldable knockoffs still break.

All phones break. Glass screens break more than the 'plastic' ones on current folding phones.

Samsung has already got folding screens 'right'. Now they are moving forward with technology advances with the screens - advances that Samsung itself is developing and possibly selling to Apple.

There is no irony here.

This is how the industry works. First generations and early adopters help pave the way for better, cheaper versions that end up in the hands of more people. Apple will benefit from that progress too. 

And Samsung is not alone either.

https://www.schott.com/innovation/en/xensation-flex/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiL-Es8rP6gIV1sDVCh03TgEhEAEYASAAEgLU9vD_BwE

beats

bluefire1 said:

Samsung came up with it first. Apple will get it right.

No, Apple did. Samsung just crapped out a product to beat them to market as usual. And as usual it was a turd.

viclauyyc

Please don’t. Just don’t do fold phone. 

beats

avon b7 said:

Beats said:

Would be the ultimate irony if Apple gets the foldable screen right with Samsung Display as the supplier! While Samsung's foldable knockoffs still break.

All phones break. Glass screens break more than the 'plastic' ones on current folding phones.

Samsung has already got folding screens 'right'. Now they are moving forward with technology advances with the screens - advances that Samsung itself is developing and possibly selling to Apple.

There is no irony here.

This is how the industry works. First generations and early adopters help pave the way for better, cheaper versions that end up in the hands of more people. Apple will benefit from that progress too. 

And Samsung is not alone either.

https://www.schott.com/innovation/en/xensation-flex/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiL-Es8rP6gIV1sDVCh03TgEhEAEYASAAEgLU9vD_BwE

I always found it funny when iKnockoff users scream "iPhone screens break easily lol!" there's memes, parodies and videos about this. Yet, they all use the same glass.

First generation products from Apple are always solid. This stupid "but but it's a first gen product!" excuse arose when Samsungs attempt break out of the box. Gotta love all the excuses made for Samsung while Apple gets ZERO tolerance.

beats

dedgecko said:

Isn’t the iPhone OLED displays already a foldable screen? And this would be a future iPhone prototype. Once those pass muster, then their may be a future iPhone model. Semantics one may argue, but this is how Apple’s designers work if the stories are true.

Yup. When Apple patented the wraparound screen, Samsung (again) crapped out a product to beat them to market, It was called the Galaxy Edge and had no reason to exist. Meanwhile Apple used the tech for iPhones, Apple Watch and I believe Apple Park.

1. iPhone 6 most successful phone model ever.
2. Apple Watch most successful watch ever.
3. Apple Park one of the greatest structures in the world.

Really shows you the difference between the critical inventor and the sloppy copycat.

seantheman

80s_Apple_Guy said:

That’s why Android tablets have always sucked and failed. Apps need to be different for the different screen sizes etc. 

Clearly you're not seeing the problem.  If you make an iPhone that can switch into an iPad, and back again.   Then there is already separate iPhone and iPad apps that are basically the same app, only they support different form factors (iPad, or iPhone).    Which app do you run?   Will it be the iPhone version, or the iPad version?  If you think you can run both apps on the one device, then you have an app continuity problem.   If this new foldable Apple device is in an iPhone mode, and the iPhone app is running, and then the user opens up this foldable Apple device to be an iPad device, then if the separate iPad app is running, and that user was in the middle of an email on the iPhone version of the app.   How will continuity work between the two separate apps?   When they are two separate apps today.

As much as you might hate the way Android supports phone and tablet apps, it's because of Android and Google encouraging it's developers to make one app, that can be any form factor, and it's why continuity still maintains what that user was doing on the same app, when the user was typing in a smartphone mode, and then switches to a tablet mode.   Nothing is lost, only the app resizes and adjusts itself into a tablet mode, and vise versa.

I hope I made that clear enough for you to understand.

ravnorodom

I really want Apple to make it happen. I read mangas and I find iPad and iPad mini are just too heavy and awkward to carry around. iPhone size and weight are just perfect and my hands/arms won't get tire from holding it for hours. If Apple can make it open like a book plus maintaining the same weight or less, that would be awesome.

avon b7

Beats said:

avon b7 said:

Beats said:

Would be the ultimate irony if Apple gets the foldable screen right with Samsung Display as the supplier! While Samsung's foldable knockoffs still break.

All phones break. Glass screens break more than the 'plastic' ones on current folding phones.

Samsung has already got folding screens 'right'. Now they are moving forward with technology advances with the screens - advances that Samsung itself is developing and possibly selling to Apple.

There is no irony here.

This is how the industry works. First generations and early adopters help pave the way for better, cheaper versions that end up in the hands of more people. Apple will benefit from that progress too. 

And Samsung is not alone either.

https://www.schott.com/innovation/en/xensation-flex/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiL-Es8rP6gIV1sDVCh03TgEhEAEYASAAEgLU9vD_BwE

I always found it funny when iKnockoff users scream "iPhone screens break easily lol!" there's memes, parodies and videos about this. Yet, they all use the same glass.

First generation products from Apple are always solid. This stupid "but but it's a first gen product!" excuse arose when Samsungs attempt break out of the box. Gotta love all the excuses made for Samsung while Apple gets ZERO tolerance.

Solid? No. They are not always solid and are often severely hampered by being precisely first generation products. You, as a user can buy into that or not but don't tell me products like the first generation MacBook Air or MacBook were solid products. Then you see patterns arising on component choices throughout various generations. Have you forgotten the butterfly keyboards already? Frayed cabling?  And let's not talk about software, shall we?

Apple can produce a foldable phone but it isn't going to produce the screen, and according to rumours at least, that screen will be designed by someone else and, given the state of the foldable phone market right now, it won't be better than what Samsung has planned for its own phones. 

foodlover

Beats said:

Yup. When Apple patented the wraparound screen, Samsung (again) crapped out a product to beat them to market, It was called the Galaxy Edge and had no reason to exist. Meanwhile Apple used the tech for iPhones, Apple Watch and I believe Apple Park.
...
Really shows you the difference between the critical inventor and the sloppy copycat.

Fact check:

• 8th of January 2013: Samsung shows Youm concept which was the basis for Note Edge at CES 2013 (8th to 11th of January 2913). That device looks pretty similar o Note Edge.
• February 2013: the first time Apple reveals patents for wraparound displays

Hm, who copied from whom?

What we learn from the above:

• Just because Apple patents something, it does not mean that the idea has not existed before.
• A patent is like a requirement, but not a product.

What else we already know:

• Apple often patents ideas that even already exist as products
• And often if Apple patents something, or there is a leak that Apple is working on something, you can be sure that someone else is short before a product release. Apple just tries to link itself to the idea before the competition releases it and not the other way around as you constantly try to indicate on this site. As if all companies in the world are just waiting for Apple to patent something in order to start an product.

Again for you: in most cases, if there is leak that Apple is working on something, you can be sure that Apple tries to link the idea to itself before the competition release their own product. This is a typical unfair Apple practice.
let u