Emma Roth, reporting for The Verge:

Apple continues to work on a foldable iPhone, which could arrive as early as 2026, according to a report from The Information. The phone is rumored to fold horizontally, like the clamshell-style Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.

In February, The Information reported that Apple was in the early stages of developing two folding iPhone prototypes. But now, it seems Apple may have settled on a design, as The Information says the device has an internal nickname, V68, indicating “the idea has moved beyond the conceptual stage” and is now ”in development with suppliers.”

If you had told me this two years ago — that a foldable iPhone would ship in 2026 — I’d be pretty excited because I was still bullish on the foldable smartphone genre back then. The kinks still had to be worked out, but the promise of a small phone expanding into a tablet-sized one was interesting because it completely negated the need for the latter product category. Imagine an iOS-iPadOS dual-use device that transforms seamlessly between an iPhone and an iPad, all with no crease in the middle of the inner display, a normal-sized outer screen, a high-resolution in-display front-facing camera, and ingress protection at the IP68 level. It seemed possible; it seemed like Samsung could pull it off first and Apple could refine it later.

Then, none of that happened. I’m beginning to feel pessimistic about the state of foldable phones again, not because I don’t think they have potential, but because they’re hitting the limits of technology. Perhaps this is apathy on Samsung’s part — I wouldn’t put it past the company — but it doesn’t seem like Apple is interested in pushing the bounds of what is possible, either, because it is engineering a flip phone, akin to the Galaxy Z Flip — not a fold-out phone, where the display expands out to a larger screen on the inside, á la Galaxy Z Fold.

When the Galaxy Z Flip first launched, I found the reintroduction of the flip phone rather intriguing, mostly for women, who have smaller pockets. (Give women the pockets they deserve, cowards.) But now, I don’t think Apple should step into a market Samsung and, interestingly, Motorola have well-covered. Nobody thinks of Samsung and Motorola as pioneers, or even competent competitors, in the tablet business, but Apple makes the iPad, the best tablet in the world. It can leverage that popularity to build a hybrid iPhone and iPad combo, but if it makes a flip phone, it’s just any other foldable device — just another one of many. It is possible, nay, likely that Apple can innovate further than Motorola or Samsung, making foldable devices more viable, but I think it should start out by conquering a market it has a chance in.

Besides that, how would Apple even market a flip iPhone? What would be the pitch? Samsung doesn’t need a selling point because nobody buys its foldable devices, but Apple does because the iPhone ostensibly has a brand attached to it — a brand people love. Apple, for the past four years, has sold four flagship iPhones: a regular, 6.1-inch iPhone, a special-sized iPhone Plus or mini model, a standard 6.1-inch iPhone Pro version, and a larger 6.7-inch iPhone Pro Max. Three of those models have sold well — the standard, iPhone Pro, and iPhone Pro Max ones — but the iPhone Plus and mini versions have never sold well. In fact, they’ve flopped. In 2025, Apple is purportedly adding a “Slim” version of the iPhone 17 at the high-end of the lineup, past the iPhone Pro Max, so where would the foldable iPhone slot in?

I would have to assume it will be more expensive than any other iPhone made, but because of the constraints of foldable displays, I’d also predict that Apple can’t fit in all the hardware it adds to the Slim model. So, it would be forced to sell a worse iPhone at a higher price than any other device it sells. What is the point of that? If it made a Galaxy Z Fold competitor instead, it could justify the higher price while also adding a much larger screen, a good selling point. But the talk of a flip phone just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m sure it’ll be good, because, again, it’s made by Apple. But at what cost?

Update, July 24, 2024: It could be possible that the foldable iPhone and iPhone Slim are the same. Joe Rossignol, reporting for MacRumors:

Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year.

Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a titanium-aluminum frame, but with a lower percentage of titanium than used for iPhone 15 Pro models.

The analyst added that while there will not be an iPhone 17 Plus, the new ultra-thin model will not be a replacement for it. Instead, he said the device will be an all-new model, with its main selling point to be its “new design” rather than specs.

I posted about this on Threads and got some interesting responses, but the one that stood out to me the most was that this model could actually be the foldable iPhone in disguise. The price of the “Slim” model is rumored to be more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it also has a smaller screen at 6.6 inches. Also, it uses an Apple modem, not a Qualcomm one, the latter of which will be in the high-end iPhone 17 models. Without the folding and price elements, it looks like an iPhone SE — one camera in 2025, seriously? — but the fourth-generation iPhone SE is rumored to launch in the spring, with mass production beginning in October. So it’s not a low-cost iPhone and it will cost more than the highest-end iPhone, which only leaves one logical conclusion: it folds.

A folding smartphone would need to be thinner, and it would almost have a larger display than the standard Pro model. But it can’t fit three cameras and would probably need to be made from a cheaper material, like an aluminum-titanium hybrid. Everything I said Tuesday about the market viability of a foldable iPhone remains true, but perhaps this “Slim” iPhone speculation business can be put to rest. (See: My commentary on Apple aiming to make its products thinner.)