Bloomberg recently provided a chart illustrating some of the key leaders in foldable phones, putting Chinese OEMs Xiaomi and Vivo in the category of "others." China is a critical market for Apple who is likely keeping an eye on this market segment in respect to foldables.
TrendForce posted an analytical report on Wednesday with the title being "Foldable Smartphone Shipments Expected to Soar by Over 50% YoY, Reaching 19.8 Million Units in 2023." While that's a super-hyper byline, the reality is that "the market penetration of foldable phones is to only be around 1.7% market share in 2023.
With continuous improvements in cost and design, this figure is expected to surpass 5% by 2027," according to TrendForce. That's not exactly a statistic that threatens Apple, though it has to be acknowledged that foldables fall into the premium phone market segment where Apple currently dominates.
In April, Patently Apple posted a report titled "A recent study shows that 39% of those willing to Purchase a Foldable smartphone in the Future would prefer one from Apple." So It's pretty clear that Apple fans will jump in head first whenever Apple decides to enter this segment. The survey revealed that 45% want a flip-phone style while 35% want a book-style form factor.
At present, Apple's patents indicate that they're working on a series of possible future foldables including a folding hybrid notebook-tablet, Book and Flip phone models as well. Yesterday the US Patent & Trademark Office published two patent applications from Apple that show that their teams are continually updating and upgrading their patent claims to ensure that they're legally protected against competitors.
Apple Flip-Style iPhone
Yesterday the U.S. Patent Office published two Apple patents relating to foldables and more. The first is titled "Multi-Part Device Enclosure" that primarily focuses on a flip-style iPhone.
While the patent verbiage does in fact support physical buttons etc., the patent equally presents a design that uses "touch sensors" and "touch-and/or force sensitive displays." Obviously the archaic view of a flip-phone as a patent figure is to illustrate a concept people could relate to. It's not a design that Apple would ever deliver.
Apple Later adds: "These components, along with the display that is positioned below the transparent cover, produce an input surface that may accept various types of physical inputs, such as swipes, gestures, touch inputs, presses, and the like."
Apple's patent FIG. 19A below illustrates a composite structure integrated into a display portion to facilitate cooling of a display or other components of the electronic device.
Apple's patent FIG. 19B above illustrates a side view of the device #1900 of FIG. 19A, air may enter one end of the air-permeable structure #1910 and pass through the air-permeable structure exiting at location #1918.
While Apple was granted this patent back in February 2021, Apple's team have filed a continuation patent that adds extra features and/or protections for their invention. You could review the entire patent including their 20 new patent claims at the bottom of patent application number 20230161390.
Leaker Jon Prosser posted went all out 2 years ago with a video report with concept images claiming that Apple was leaning towards a flip-style foldable phone, much like the recent study suggested.
While this style isn't my preference, more seem to a want a flip-style smartphone. I'm personally looking for a larger display rather than the same iPhone of today simply folded in half. Send in your comments below as to which model you would prefer and why in our comment section below or on our Twitter feed.
iPhone/iPad with Mechanism to Enlarge the Display
In Apple's second patent application posted yesterday by the U.S. Patent Office they cover a wider range of possible future foldable devices. One covers devices that could provide an extendable display for an iPhone or iPad. To better visualize this concept, see the video below of Samsung demonstrating a prototype of a future tablet with an extendable display at an Intel event last October.
As you'll see in the patent FIGS below, Apple presents a scrollable display concept along with a simple foldable device and a wild device that could act as a next-gen notebook-like device.
Apple's patent FIG. 2 below is a perspective view of a scrollable device having a flexible display extended between two housing structures; FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative electronic device with a scrolling flexible display deployed using multiple internal rollers.
