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Apple Reportedly Orders 'Large Number' of Samsung Foldable Mobile Phone Display Samples
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I have literally stopped using tablets because they are not easy to use besides having similar functionality and interface like mobiles, hence settled for a larger screen displays, completely forgot tablets. In any case I need to use laptops for heavy stuffs. I like Mate X foldable a practical one with absurd price. Samsung Fold, Razr etc I am not comfortable. Apple can potentially merge iPad & iPhone into a single device with their efficient processors.
Tablet market is dead in Android except Samsung and few Chinese players come with outdated and unsupported products. In some markets students buy the cheapest for eLearning. iPad started very well for few years and people suddenly stopped buying and upgrading iPads because it was neither replacing mobile nor laptops. Mostly ended up as a single or rare purchase for the most.
Samsung gave Apple an incredible idea with their $2000 price tag. Now Apple will perfect the tech and charge $2000 + $500 fanboy tax + $500 Tim Cook tax!
I'm still not convinced that the form factor is worth pursuing based on other foldable phones that have come out.
Bendable / foldable screens are indeed cool, but it's going to require other advancements in phone tech to properly realize the vision. Things like:
- No creases in the display.
- Maintaning water resistance. For a foldable display that uses hinges, that's a challenge.
- Better battery tech (which are being developed, but are not to market yet), where you greatly decrease the size yet maintain or increase capacity.
- Reducing the size of PCB further, if possible. That, or-
- Printing the circuitry inside the display.
- Reducing the thickness of current phones by half, which will be tough to do since they've reached peak thinness, so that a foldable phone when closed is still just as thick as a flat phone.
So based on just those alone, you may as well try and come up with a different form factor. My guess is 10-20 years from now, we won't be using phones that are flat, just as almost no one now uses clam shell phones that were everywhere 15 years ago.
Bendable / foldable screens are indeed cool, but it's going to require other advancements in phone tech to properly realize the vision. Things like:
- No creases in the display.
- Maintaning water resistance. For a foldable display that uses hinges, that's a challenge.
- Better battery tech (which are being developed, but are not to market yet), where you greatly decrease the size yet maintain or increase capacity.
- Reducing the size of PCB further, if possible. That, or-
- Printing the circuitry inside the display.
- Reducing the thickness of current phones by half, which will be tough to do since they've reached peak thinness, so that a foldable phone when closed is still just as thick as a flat phone.
So based on just those alone, you may as well try and come up with a different form factor. My guess is 10-20 years from now, we won't be using phones that are flat, just as almost no one now uses clam shell phones that were everywhere 15 years ago.
every year the Apple Watch get more powerful in 6 years paired with a Applewatch 12 and Apple glasses 4 will we need these types of devices?
I agree, but I’m an Apple Care guy. So ”long-term” reliability isn’t a concern for me. If it breaks... Apple Care.
If samsung foldable phone cost almost 2k, imagine an apple foldable phone...
What does "large number" even mean? Could be, as someone else suggested, that they just ordered a couple dozen to experiment with.
Other than the technical/material accomplishment, what does a foldable phone buy you that two screens with zero bezels wouldn't? Sure 2 screens might result in a fine 'line' between the two screens, but in return you get much better reliability - no worries about stretched screens. If Apple came out with an iPhone whose back could flip forward to double my screen real estate, I'd buy it in a minute. But only if it added a 3-4 mm to the thickness of the phone (so the total would be less than 10mm). Current foldable phones seem to be twice as fast as a regular phone.
Other than the technical/material accomplishment, what does a foldable phone buy you that two screens with zero bezels wouldn't? Sure 2 screens might result in a fine 'line' between the two screens, but in return you get much better reliability - no worries about stretched screens. If Apple came out with an iPhone whose back could flip forward to double my screen real estate, I'd buy it in a minute. But only if it added a 3-4 mm to the thickness of the phone (so the total would be less than 10mm). Current foldable phones seem to be twice as fast as a regular phone.
Personally, that's exactly how I envision a future form factor being (and I've posted as such at MR before), and I think it's the most likely for phones. Maybe a tube that's a bit bigger than a pencil (think of a "D" shaped tube), because you'd want an outside display for notifications, some camera lens, speakers, USB-C port on one end, etc. But yeah, the display itself would just roll out of the tube in some fashion.
A good point. It's entirely possible phones may just become watches at some point. And who knows. We might not even need screens if Apple Glass ever becomes a thing.
Fine with them testing and building prototypes, but Apple needs to really establish any sort of value before bringing a fold-able device to the market. Right now, there is no value over what we have already.
I think the technology has potential, but at what price point? If Apple releases a foldable display, we realize it will probably be out of reach For the majority of consumers, but then who is this price point to appeal to then? The Samsung Galaxy Fold is extremely niche, but continues to refine with hardware tweaks, but even there version is exponentially expensive and doesn’t seem to be marketed in the tech sector.
that keyboard just wasn't a good idea.
apple isn't going to release a phone to market with a foldable display that presents the problems the current generations have.
That's a cliche around Apple forums that they wait till they can get it spot on. No. They don't.
A folding Apple iPhone isn't coming out in 2020. No one is making that claim, no one is saying it's prime time ready, not even the article. You're making a distinction without a cause. Apple is allegedly ordering samples to work on their version of a folding phone prototype and you're calling their research & development a gimmick. We both know Apple is never first to market, they prefer getting the product right first. A folding Apple iPhone is coming, don't be so reactionary to its development when that's extremely clear that's all this is currently.
True, whether we realize it or not “ambient” tech is the future. Hence the massive pile -on of “voice assistants”.