Can the Foldable iPhone Redeem Apple?
If you've been paying attention to the rumour mill lately, you will have seen that there are a huge amount recently about the iPhone fold, potentially to be dubbed the iPhone Ultra, finally releasing this year. If the rumours are to be the phone will be more in a passport form factor rather than the tall and skinny form factor of things like the galaxy fold and more similar to the original Google pixel fold.
Original Google Pixel Fold
Personally I think this is the correct form factor to use as someone who has used both a galaxy fold and a Google pixel fold the inside display of the pixel is more useful for example when watching videos on the Samsung Galaxy fold watching video on the inside screen is basically the same size as watching it on the outside side screen because the inside is just a square whereas on the pixel fold original, not the newest one, It opens to a 4:3 screen more to an iPad mini. And therefore the screen size is actually more useful on the inside if you want things to be bigger and of course you still get the benefits of things like multitasking having two apps side by of those kinds of things.
Inside screen comparison of the Google Pixel Fold vs the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (Not to Scale with each other just to compare aspect ratio)
Now the question is with Apple's recent record of software what is the software solution on this device? And previous folding phones like the Galaxy and the pixel android has essentially adopted just make everything bigger on the inside screen. It's just the same interface on the outside and the inside and that does have some benefits such as being more consistent people I think for an iPhone fold this is where Apple should in theory shine and they should theory rise above the other folds and the key difference is for the iPad to execute this properly.
Apple needs to make this an iPhone on outside an iPad on the inside which means they need to give it the multitasking capabilities of an iPad like the split screen apps, maybe even the new windowing from iPadOS 26 those kinds of things it needs to be able to run iPad apps on the inside screen and for those apps that have an iPhone and iPad version it needs to be able to scale to show the iPad version on the inside screen in order to fully utilise the device properly realistically this should be like carrying an iPhone and an iPad mini in your pocket at the same time. The question is can Apple pull it off?
As I wrote about in a previous blog post Apple doesn't exactly have the best track record recently when it comes to it software and the overall user experience and essentially combining two of its key products is going to take some serious software magic to tie the whole experience together so in my opinion if this foldable does emerge this year they really must nail the software they must nail the user experience otherwise this thing will be a total and utter disaster especially given that the rumour suggest that it could be north of £1500 (~$2000) to purchase this device.
The other thing I really hope that they can bring to this device is Apple Pencil support. Many people have been bugging Apple for years to bring Apple Pencil support to the iPhone yet they've never done it and I can understand some of the reasons why they have never done kt for example it would probably require making a smaller pencil than the current pencils that exists in order to make it portable with the normal phone. However if it is to essentially run iPadOS on the inside needs to support the pencil in order to fully utilise certain apps like procreate, pixelmator and notabiliy.
Procrate on the iPad Mini
Apple's first new device in a category always seems to be a "throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" approach they did this with the Apple Watch at first, they didn't really lean into the health things. They suggested all sorts of weird things like sending people your heart rate and running Twitter on the watch but slowly overtime it became clear as to what the real use cases for something like an Apple Watch is. Which is predominantly a health tracking device for tracking your exercise, tracking your vitals and then add the occasional quick reply to a notification.
They took the same approach with the Vision Pro they just kind of threw out all of these random examples of things that you can do with the device like weird avatar FaceTime calls, mirroring your Mac onto the screen so you can use the computer with the goggles on, watching movies looking at 3D versions of your photographs.
Looking online it seems like the only thing that's actually stuck from used cases they came up with for the vast majority to people that purchased it, which is still a very small amount of people I might add, is watching video everybody says that's the only thing they actually use it for anymore and being such an expensive device that's a little bit of a failure in my opinion.
Apple Vision Pro
Coming back to the foldable I feel like they will take the same approach again on throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what use cases for a foldable device Exist and in order to do that I do think that they need to add Apple Pencil support because to me one of the most compelling cases would be somebody who wants to draw on the go but doesn't want to look an iPad full-size with them maybe they don't wanna bring a big bearing with them but no problems they can just take their iPhone and when they get on the train or whether they get to the café, they can unfold it and start drawing and then when it's time to go fold it back up and be on their way to me.
That seems like a perfect use case for this device at least from a marketing point of view and they honestly need as many of those use cases as they can justify the £1500 price tag. There is also one thing that apple loves more than anything its selling you accessories for your device. The iPad has the Apple pencil and the magic keyboard the phone has cases, airpods, airtags, and the Watch, the latter two have their own accessories (accessory-seption) and while the fold buyers will undoubtedly almost all be apple watch and airpod buyers and case buyers I'm sure apple wouldn't turn their nose up selling them another £99 apple pencil optimised for the softer inside screen material of the foldable screen and at fit for the smaller size of the fold when closed.
iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard Accessory
While I am excited about the idea of the iPhone foldable and the potential it could have especially when you pair it with a pencil or a keyboard I do ultimately remain skeptical on the actual execution of the device as a whole, and when it is potentially going to cost x3 my mortgage payment or more. In these uncertain times I think just like the vision pro I will be keen observer from the sidelines. Of course I will be heading to the Apple store on launch to see and use it for myself but I cant justify buying one when I already have a pro iPhone and a iPad Mini.
Last Edited: 1 month, 2 weeks ago.