Foldable phones have excellent displays
Who knew?
Foldable phones already have killer screens, both indoors and out
As you can see, the foldables here meet or exceed the display quality benchmarks of both 2023 and 2024 flagships, including those with 4500 advertised brightness, or Apple and Samsung’s vaunted flagship phone OLED displays.
Apple doesn’t need foldable iPhone but it may launch a foldable iPad
Why fold?
Foldable phones market share
In terms of brand performance, Samsung remains the market leader despite its market share sliding from 80% in 2022 to under 70% in 2023, while Huawei’s shipments have risen to 12%. Brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have kept their shares below 10%. Looking ahead to 2024, Samsung aims to maintain its foldable phone market share around 60%, consistent with its 2023 target. Huawei, in contrast, is aggressively boosting its foldable phone shipments, aiming for a market share that could surpass 20%.
Way thinner than before, foldables are still considered bulky
To hinge or not to hinge
All the brouhaha how foldable phone displays are not up to Apple’s high standards and this may have paused the development of the proverbial bendy iPhone misses the mark that Apple simply doesn’t need one. Its bread-and-butter iPhone franchise is selling like hot cakes and is something Apple wouldn’t dilute or cannibalize willy-nilly without a compelling reason.
Putting a hinge in the middle of an iPhone is just not such a reason. Yes, a hinge, since the iPhone still comes with a flexible display with a plastic substrate like they all do now. The sheer act of folding and unfurling it has to add value to the iPhone user and that’s what Apple is likely mulling rather than getting scared by the foldable panel tests of its display department.
When it does, foldables should’ve already proven popular with users and suppliers should be able to provide quality components on the cheap and plentiful. That’s how Apple typically rolls when it comes to going crazy with drastic iPhone hardware or form factor upgrades.