Oliver Haslam·

Apple Working On Foldable iPhone For 2020 Launch That Could Double As An iPad [Rumor]

Apple will launch up to three new iPhones this year, but while we are still only in March of 2018, there is already attention being lavished on what we could see as far out as 2020.

According to Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, that could be an iPhone that is foldable in the middle.

According to the analyst the device, which is described as an iPhone, will be foldable in the middle which will in turn allow it to be opened out to potentially “double up as a tablet,” possibly allowing it to function as both a smartphone and an iPad-like device.

Mohan was explaining his prediction via a research note which was obtained by CNBC. That note was based on a week that he spent in Asia, apparently meeting with companies which are part of Apple’s current supply chain, giving him the belief that what he was told while he was there will eventually lead to a sea change in how iPhones look and work within two years.

Foldable displays do currently exist in that devices like the iPhone X already use displays that can be folded at the edges to make a given industrial design possible, but with you are going to fold a display like Mohan speaks of, you are also likely to need to fold components – and that’s a whole different ball game.

While we have heard rumors of foldable iPhones, or indeed foldable Android phones for a long time, now the thought of one actually coming to market in a package that Apple would consider acceptable just does not seem viable in the timescales mentioned here, even if Apple has patent in place for it. Prototype devices which look and behave just as Mohan described are a reality today, but they are just that, prototypes. Whether Apple could turn a prototype of this ilk into a product ready to be sold in Apple stores worldwide by 2020 remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, we just cannot see it coming to fruition just yet, although it does seem to be something that will happen eventually, and is simply a matter of time.

(Source: CNET, Top image: Fan-made concept via MacRumors)

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