While other manufacturers continue to brag about their foldable smartphone models, Apple remains out of the market for this type of device, and it is rumored that we are still a year or two away from seeing the first model., if we ever see it. Why hasn’t Apple already launched this type of smartphone?
Foldable smartphones are the future, or at least that’s what they want us to think about. Giants of the telephony market like Samsung, Huawei, Motorola and Microsoft have already presented different models of phones with very variable designs and more or less successful results. But while TV commercials teach us how “cool” a phone is folded in half so it can register on Instagram without needing any help, the reality is that these are devices that you can hardly see in the street (I haven’t seen any), with sky-high prices even for a market that already has very high prices, and there is a lot of doubt that this is nothing more than a passing fad that ends in millions of dollars invested in R&D thrown in the trash.
Apple, to see them coming
The benchmark technological giant in the market is not moving. It continues with its flagship smartphone with a conventional design and building on the same features that have marked its success so far: excellent screen, exceptional camera, superb quality of materials and unmatched power, all at a price that exceeds in most cases that of any other model “TOP” of the competition, but which nevertheless sells like hot cakes. Whereas, the rest of the brands are content to dominate the mid and low end of the market, without even being able to dream of approaching Apple in its reign in the high end. It is clear that at equal prices, the user prefers an iPhone, and this is why other brands have strongly opted for foldable smartphones. If you want a slice of the premium slice of the pie, it has to offer something Apple doesn’t.
Samsung already has several generations of foldable phones, with two different concepts: the Galaxy Fold and the Z Flip. A smartphone that opens to become a small tablet and a smartphone that folds up to fit in your pocket. Motorola has gone for nostalgia with its Razr, a shell-type phone with mid-range specifications but at a premium price for the simple fact of being foldable. Huawei, plunged into free fall in the telephone market due to the sanction of the United States, does not forget the foldables with which for many it is the most beautiful of the “foldables” that have been presented so far , And we can’t forget Microsoft, that although their thing is not a foldable phone in itself (rather two screens joined by a hinge), it is also taking its first steps in this market.
How many of these models have you been able to touch with our hands? Someone probably got to see them in person at a booth at a tech show., or even in a phone store … but how many of you have asked your friend for the flip phone to tinker with? How many of you have purchased one of these models? There will undoubtedly be, but very few, too few for what the smartphone of the future should be, and we have already been on the market for 3 years with these devices.
Too many problems, too many doubts
The feeling with each of these models is that they should have stayed as test products on the museum shelves of each of the manufacturers. There is no need to recall the enormous amount of problems that buyers of the first Samsung Galaxy Fold went through.. Even those who were able to test the phone before it went to market have already reported huge design flaws. It is not a simple technology, and the impression is that there is still a long way to go and a lot of bugs to be fixed.
Throwing a phone that is not ready is a serious problem that Apple cannot afford to have. No manufacturer should afford this luxury, but Apple even less. And I’m not just talking about the image of the company, which claims to offer top quality products to its buyers, but the serious problem that would involve selling millions of units of a broken phone
A vague concept that can go out of fashion
And the first thing that foldable phone makers need to be clear about is what they want to offer the public, what they want to convince us that we want, although we’re not yet clear on that ourselves. Do we want a phone that becomes a tablet? Or do we want a phone that folds up to fit in your pocket? I am not at all clear, and it is that both concepts have their problems.
A phone that becomes a tablet is, a priori, the best idea, since you combine in one device the advantages of two different worlds: smartphone and tablet. When I want a phone, I leave it closed, and when I want a tablet, I open it. So far so good, but in return you have to carry a very thick and heavy device (like two smartphones together). Things don’t look so good anymore. And when we open the phone and turn it into a tablet, we have an almost square screen, the worst of the worst to enjoy multimedia content because we waste a lot of it. In other words, I have the equivalent of two cell phones in my pocket and when I want to watch a movie I see practically the same thing as if I had my usual cell phone?
The other concept could therefore be more successful: a phone that you fold to put in your pocket. So I have a square device that when I want to use I have to unfold. It has a small screen when folded that allows me to see the notifications I have received … but not much else. And therefore every time I want to do something I will have to open it, and close it when I want to put it back in my pocket. It’s starting to sound like a “not so good” idea to me. To this we add that when it is folded to store it in your pocket, it will be much more rounded, again we will have two smartphones together, longer, more cut, but in thickness yes.
Which of the two concepts would I choose? Without any, and that’s where the main problem with foldable smartphones lies: I really don’t know if I want a foldable phone. ‘Cause brands bombard me and tell me what I want, and TV commercials, YouTube and Instagram posts are very cool, but I’m not sure I will get bored of this device in a few days. Are foldable phones really the future? Or is it more about 3D TVs or curved screens? Only time will tell.
And Apple is waiting
Apple is working on several models of foldable phones. It has several prototypes and is researching materials and technologies that can make it the next iPhone. But he’s also aware that he can’t make the same mistakes the competition does, and that’s why he’s waiting. Because the more time passes, the more the technologies necessary for these products to materialize are refined, the more the others will have made of mistakes and the more Apple will have learned, and above all, clearer will have which concept of foldable smartphone the user wishes, if you want it.
Rumors They point to 2023 as the year Apple could launch its first foldable iPhoneSome say it won’t be until 2024 when we see it. And others say we won’t see any foldable smartphones because this kind of product will be forgotten sooner rather than later. We will continue to wait and tell you quickly.
Table of Contents
