Apple will enter the world of the foldable in 2024, Samsung believes. But it won't be a foldable iPhone, as you might expect. It'll be something altogether bigger.
If Samsung's expectations are on the money, Apple is set to announce a foldable iPad before it chooses to make an iPhone that bends in the middle. That's according to a report based on what the South Korean tech company is telling its suppliers, at least.
Bendy tablet
The Elec reports that Samsung has been telling its suppliers that it expects Apple to join the foldable market in 2024 with a tablet or notebook product, choosing to enter the smartphone fray later. While Samsung is a big player in foldables, it sells two bendy phones rather than tablets. Apple, it thinks, will choose to think different.
This isn't the first time that the prospect of a foldable iPad has been suggested, however. CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood previously told CNBC that he believed Apple would choose to fold the iPad first, again with 2024 being a possible launch window.
Going back to February 2022, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and display analyst Ross Young were also pointing to some sort of 20-inch foldable display, possibly some sort of MacBook with half of the display turning into a touchscreen keyboard. It's possible that all of these reports are coming from the same place, adding fuel to the fire that Apple will indeed eschew the foldable iPhone in favor of something new — at least initially.
At the time, Gurman said that the 20-inch tablet could also transform between a Mac and an iPad depending on what the user needed at any given time. That would surely make it the best iPad and best Mac in one fell swoop.
