If you have interest in a folding iPhone, here's how to tell Apple

AppleInsider

You have to get emailed a survey, but if Apple asks you how you feel about your current iPhone, you now also get the chance to say you'd really like an iPhone Fold.

Apple's foldable iPhone could debut in 2026, unless enough users tick "Not at all interested" in the new survey

Apple does occasionally email users with a survey, such as in 2024 when it wanted to see if Apple Watch users were interested in smart rings. There's no way to get yourself onto the new survey, but if you are emailed, you have the first chance to tell Apple just how interested you are in folding devices.

Under the question "How important are the following aspects for your next smartphone purchase?", Apple offers 14 possibilities. The 11th is "Foldable design," and like the rest has options from "Not at all important" to "Extremely important."

The rest of this section concerns weight, device size, and one of a couple of times Apple asks about privacy. Later on, the survey also goes into detail about opinions and usage of Apple Intelligence.

There are around 40 pages of questions in the survey, which Apple estimates will take about 15 minutes to complete. That's about what it took two of us on the AppleInsider staff on Monday morning.

Our commonalities are that we both bought iPhone 16 Pro models this go-around. It's not clear what Apple's criteria are for the survey mail.

Apple slips in a question about foldable designs into its new survey

Apple never publicly reveals the answers to its surveys, and it doesn't appear to conduct them often. But then it's also not known how the sample is selected, or how large it is, other than it appears to be international.

The question about interest in foldable devices comes as Apple is -- yet again -- rumored to release one in the next 12 months.



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tiredskills

If early car makers had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

victormortimer

And this is also how you tell Apple you definitely do not want a fragile phone with a crease in the middle of the screen.

Materials science has not caught up with the stupid things some people think they want.  Foldable phones are garbage.

dominikhoffmann

I will not pay > $2k for a foldable iPhone, much less one that has a polymer screen.

anilu_777

I’d buy a foldable iPhone but the crease needs to be fixed. And like the first gen Samsung one with all its issues, I’d wait for a second gen of a new format

macgui

As Apple hasn't shipped a folder I don't know that there's a crease that needs to be fixed. So I'll wait to see what they ship before criticizing. Even so I imagine it'll be pricy. My current phone was $780 and that was pricy for me. My next new phone will probably be near $1000 and that's a proverbial bitter pill.

I'll check out Apple's entry out of curiosity when it ships, but I'm sure the price will be in "Do you really want this?" range.

applezulu

If they're slipping that question into a survey now, there's no way they're going to release a foldable phone in the next 12 months. The question itself offers the lowest possible barrier to gauging interest. With no caveats or context about cost, fragility, etc., it literally invites more positive responses, and they're sophisticated enough to know that. It allows the survey-taker to think, "sure, all other things being equal, I'd be interested in a folding design." If an overwhelming number of respondants skew toward the "extremely important" side, then Apple could estimate some degree of willingness among consumers to pony up extra money to get it. On the other hand, if open-ended interest skews neutral to "not at all important," it seems that would help Apple put the notion of selling a hugely expensive novelty phone to rest.

The Pro Max iPhone and the Ultra watch is how Apple does premium models. They're bigger and sometimes introduce new features on them first (from an engineering standpoint, this is easier to do on a larger model), but they're essentially the same design as the other phones and watches offered. The folding design would be fundamentally different, and due to its expense would represent the "premium" slot in the iPhone lineup. They're not going to go to market with that if customer interest is small, and the ones sold by their competitors are already demonstrating that interest is small. If this survey question fails to show unexpected levels of interest to contradict what the competition is seeing (remember, the best folding phones are in China, and even there, they only hold 3% of the market), it seems likely Apple will have what they need to let this one go.

drow

i'll expect a folding iphone sometime after we get a folding apple car

yyzguy

Prior to selling off my AAPL shares, I figured anything with big profit margins would be fine no matter how stupid.  Now I no longer care about stupid ideas that may turn into stupid products.