Apple is right to ditch folding iPad plans in favor of the iPhone Fold
Apple has long been rumored to be working on the iPhone Fold and a foldable iPad. A new report claims that the iPad project is "paused," and I am convinced that it's the right decision.
The 'iPhone Fold' is expected to take familiar design cues - image credit AppleInsider
The folding device rumors have been plentiful in recent years, and the general belief was that something would be released in 2026 or thereabouts. Whether that would be a phone or some sort of tablet-laptop hybrid was unclear, depending on which analyst you listened to.
It's important to remember that this latest report, courtesy of DigiTimes, doesn't say that the foldable iPad has been canceled. Rather, it says that Apple has "decided to pause progress" on the project.
Of course, this is from DigiTimes. These are the guys who said that the Pro Display XDR was an iMac, so anything and everything they say needs to be taken with not just a grain of salt, but an entire salt lick.
If accurate, just how long that pause will last, we'll have to wait and see. After all, a foldable screen iSomething has been rumored to be a next-year product for the last seven.
Who's waiting for a foldable iPad, anyway?
If there was any potential at all for the foldable iPad to hamper Apple's plans for a foldable iPhone, in design, engineering, shipping, or production, I think that Apple did the right thing by giving the iPhone priority.
Why that is comes down to expectations, demand, and the market around Apple in 2025. The lack of a foldable iPhone is... something for Apple, especially as other phone makers continue to iterate at lightning speed. Whether or not it's a real issue depends very much on your iPhone use case.
The foldable phone market is spendy, and relatively niche. Most folding smartphones cost more than an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and that's a giant pill to swallow for most Android folks. Any customer -- especially high-end ones -- lost to Android because they aren't being catered to, is one too many.
Foldables are here to stay, and getting those customers back might take something very special indeed.
I'm still not sure how many people are clamoring for a foldable iPad that can turn into a MacBook of sorts, when traditional MacBooks continue to sell gangbusters.
Ultimately, following the launch of Apple Vision Pro, I'm not sure Apple wants another comparatively low-volume launch -- compared to non-folding iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, at least.
Apple is behind the competition
Apple might not have entered the foldable fray just yet, but others haven't been waiting to take the lead. Big-name players like Samsung and Motorola have years of experience in foldable smarphones behind them, and their wares are starting to show it.
Even flaming data that you get from failures is data. Both Samsung and Motorola have that, in scores of creased screens, seized hinges, and famously, high-profile reviewers peeling off the screen film.
Samsung is, in fact, getting ready to announce refreshed foldable models. But Apple's really being shown up by the likes of Oppo and Honor, and I think that's a problem.
The Oppo Find N5 is an incredible foldable phone. It's impossibly thin, super-fast, and looks great. The brand-new Honor V5 is even thinner, albeit by just 0.1mm.
The Oppo Find N5 is one thin foldable phone.
Both of these phones have fancy hinges that are designed to deal with known foldable issues. Those issues? Prominent creases and dust ingress that can cause chaos, which I've alluded to before.
Both phones are rated as being dust and water resistant as a result of the new hinge, and both have almost invisible creases. Oh, and both have gorgeous 120Hz OLED foldable panels, too.
It has long been assumed that Apple is late to the foldable market because it didn't want to deal with the issues that plagued these devices. But those issues have (mostly) been dealt with, and we may already have a look at what Apple is planning for the crucial hinge.
That leaves the obvious, uncomfortable, lingering question: If Oppo and Honor can do it, why can't Apple?
Why it's taken so long for Apple to get here, we don't yet know. It may not want to yet, because we know it has the technology and the research. Maybe that's a question that will be answered when the iPhone Fold is finally announced.
But probably not. Apple is monolithic in its silence about matters like this -- until it decides in its interminable wisdom that it's time not to be.
I hope I'm wowed and that the wait suddenly makes sense.
iPads are iPads, and MacBooks are MacBooks
With Apple's iPhone Fold maybe desperately needed, and craved by a few high-rollers, what of the iPad Fold?
While there are Windows PC versions of something similar to the rumored iPad Fold, they are far from mainstream. I liken them to the Tablet PC of the late 1990s -- they're cool, but ultimately don't answer a real need for enough people.
Apple's iPad lineup is full of popular products, and the same goes for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lineups. Mixing the two together seems an odd decision. Not least because we don't know whether it would run iPadOS or macOS.
Ultimately, it comes down to a simple question of priorities and resources. One of Apple's rumored foldable devices was always going to come first, the only question was which one it would be.
For me, there was only ever one option. The iPhone Fold should have been in Apple's lineup years ago. I still don't see where an iPad Fold fits into it.
Apple isn't hurting for money. It can wait forever if it needs to, and folks that remember the iPod or iPhone taking off right out of the gate are remembering history wrong. It took a few years for both, and the iPad and Apple Watch even longer. We're in the midst of that "what is this for" for Apple Vision Pro right now.
But lost sales are lost sales. War chest or not, shareholders expect everything to be done to make more of it.
With that in mind, Apple seems to have made the obvious decision. Concentrate on the product people are likely to buy while pausing the one they aren't.
I can't wait to see what a foldable iPhone has to offer. And who knows, maybe it'll get me excited for a foldable iPad as well.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Typing on a glass screen is a different story. Using a folding iPad as some kind of MacBook typing on glass would truly suck.
Using Pencil Pro on a folding 13"-to-20" iPad Pro would be huge.
I believe a folding iPhone could be great. Don't put a screen on the outside like current folding devices; this sucks.
I think most of the comments are a fair reflection on reality.
My main qualm perhaps is about putting the iPad Fold plans on pause.
After following the launch of the Huawei MatePad Fold it was far more compelling than I imagined (at least what I've seen so far) and think an iPad Fold would equally compelling. Especially as only Huawei is really doing the modern folding tablet right now. There are very few fish in that pond (unlike folding phones) and demand would be lower and therefore easier to meet.
This is a video (in Chinese) that gives a decent overview of what is out there right now. Obviously there are a lot of use case options that don't exist with folding phones and this product is running one OS (the same one that runs on laptops) so moving from a 'tablet' style use to a 'laptop' style use is seamless.
If Apple has put the project on hold I wonder if it's because resources are being diverted elsewhere or the development is simply not moving as fast as it could due to other pressing issues.
If the MatePad Fold takes off (it's very expensive) Huawei will have yet another win in the ultra premium segment and Apple will lose more premium customers as a result.
A folding phone would fill one hole where customers are potentially being lost but cars and tablets/folding tablets is another.
For iPads, many of the same limitations apply, only more so. You’re not trying to fit an iPad in your pocket so they don’t have the size constraints that a smart phone has, and iPads are designed to do more work using the entire screen, so having a crease in the middle is even more of an issue.
Overall, from what I’ve seen I’d take a standard smartphone and skip the folding screen and i can’t really see the use for a folding ipad.
Plus there's only so many folds it can do before it breaks and I wouldn't be surprised if some even broke prematurely.
The notch was a huge trade off for something that wasn't even strictly necessary.
Glass fronts and backs have to be accepted even though there are great alternatives for backs that are far more durable.
Folding phones, by nature, need extra care and that is a trade off. A hinge is a potential point of failure that slab phones don't have. But then slab phones can't double as mini tablets.
Anything mechanical will have a certain amount of actions before they break. Buttons, physical sliders, even ports
(insertion/removal).
Modern folding phones are rated for years of use but the target audience at the high end probably renews the device with every hardware upgrade as they have lots of disposable income.
I can see why that might appeal to Apple. Especially as they might be losing high income users through not having a competing offering.
As for the crease, even the first foldable phones (with more visible creases) it was a non-issue. They were hardly noticeable in use. Very similar to the situation with the notch.
The notch was hardly a huge tradeoff and it gave increased security combined with convenience. I suppose you could say those weren't strictly necessary but the majority would disagree with you. I have touchID on my laptop and iPad and FaceID on my phone and FaceID is orders of magnitude better. As for the tradeoff - it uses real estate on the screen that was essentially unused anyway so it really wasn't much of a tradeoff. It's a matter of perspective, but essentially it allowed use of the 'ears' on either side of the camera to extend the screen up.
Many iPhone users keep their phones for years. I'm in that camp. I have an iPhone 12 Pro that's 5 years old and still working perfectly. That's part of the reason I buy iPhones - because they're well made and last several years. I'd rather buy a quality product less frequently than continually replace cheap crap. Any mechanical feature of a device needs to be sturdy enough to last the life of the phone. Especially with a folding phone, if the hinge or screen wear out before the rest of the phone you've essentially compromised the lifespan of the device.
I can also say from personal experience, the crease is most definitely an issue and is clearly noticeable. It may be an acceptable compromise to some people for the novelty of a folding device but to dismiss it as insignificant is simply attempting to rationalize a design deficiency.
That said, I do use sidecar and universal control with my MacBook/iPads as well as bringing a portable USB-C display when I'm on the go. A large screen foldable iPad would be pretty awesome as a Mac companion. Imagine an iPad with a 13" footprint (same as the MacBook, so it fits on top of it in a bag or backpack), but which folds out to something like a 20" external display for the Mac.