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With all the craziness that is September and October in the tech industry, this one completely passed me by.
And, ironically, it got trounced again by a surprise event announcement from Apple earlier this week.
Thankfully, I now have some time to muse on the reports that Apple is in the latter stages of development for a foldable iPad.
At first glance, it sounds daft – rumour mill waffle of the highest order. But dig a little deeper, and it actually makes a huge amount of sense – and a foldable iPad is probably far closer to becoming a reality than any of us think.
And I think I want one.
A foldable iPad in 2024?
The rumour of a foldable iPad first arrived with some weight in March 2022, thanks to Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) analyst Ross Young.
Back then, Young told us that Apple was apparently readying foldable displays that extend to 20 inches and which are probably designated for either future MacBooks or iPads. Arguably, the latter feels more suitable, but this really is where the line between a MacBook and an iPad begins to blur inevitably.
Although unconfirmed, it’s thought that Apple has partnered with LG to make these huge foldable OLED panels which reportedly use an ultra-thin cover glass as opposed to polyimide, which is used on today’s foldable displays from other manufacturers.
Some of the other details about Apple’s rumoured foray into the foldable market are rather more questionable. For instance, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests that the first device to boast such a display will also come with a carbon fibre kickstand. Really? How expensive does Apple want this thing to be?
Don’t answer that.
So, what’s taking them so long? With so many other manufacturers already firmly seated at the foldable roundtable, why is Apple still lingering at the entrance?
More importantly – when are we going to see this bendy Apple device?
Why a foldable tablet makes sense for Apple
I don’t know the answer to the question posed above. Sorry; it was rhetoric. No one knows what Apple will do next – including those analysts and rumour mill ‘experts’.
Regardless, the more I think about this, the more a foldable tablet makes perfect sense for Apple. They don’t want to make a foldable iPhone – I think that’s pretty clear. The slow pace of change on the iPhone of today reveals that they’re far happier to let it iterate gently and safely. That’s why Apple has so much money pouring into its bank accounts.
The iPad is a different story. Sales are struggling – they always have. Apple’s tablet needs an injection of interest and innovation if those sales figures are to receive a much-needed boost.
Apple won’t get experimental in public with any of its devices, but the iPad is best placed for some experimentation. It’s why we first saw the LiDAR Scanner on Apple’s tablet, and why we see weird versions like the 10th generation emerge.
If Apple is reserving its foldable plans for the iPad, I think they’ve already nailed the concept. And this comes from someone who loves the current range of foldable Android smartphones.
Let me explain.
My love of the Google Pixel Fold
The Google Pixel Fold is, in my opinion, the best foldable on the market right now. Granted, I haven’t tried them all (yet) but of those that I have tinkered with, it represents the best combination of utility, design, compromise, camera quality, and pure Android experience.
It has one ironic Achilles heel, though. That front display is so good, it almost renders the internal display useless. That is unless you really want to use it for multitasking and big-screen content consumption.
Personally, I find myself relying on the front display of the Pixel Fold far more than the huge inner display. Is that a user error? Am I not being adventurous enough with my use of foldable smartphones? Possibly.
However, this is also why a foldable tablet probably makes more sense for people like myself (and I think I sit within quite a large number of tech enthusiasts and regular consumers on this front). A foldable iPad offers far more utility than a foldable phone when you start to think about the benefits it offers.
For starters, you’ll get a much bigger display, but it’ll also be a display that can be far more easily transported. It would also offer the possibility – finally – of the keyboard on the iPad actually becoming usable. Strong haptics would be required, but the ability to take your iPad with you on a train journey without the heft of a keyboard case is rather tantalising.
Conclusion: the flip phone isn’t for Apple
I’m convinced we’re never going to see a foldable iPhone. Apple will never be satisfied with that crease for its hero product, and, regardless, the fate of the iPhone has already been sealed with the emergence of visionOS and spatial computing.
Apple cannot rest on its laurels, though. Most other manufacturers have jumped on the foldable bandwagon already, and although Apple doesn’t always follow the crowd, the level of noise generated about this technology from the likes of Samsung is hard to ignore.
If Apple skips the foldable smartphone thing entirely and decides to bend its iPads instead, I’m all for it. What about you?
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