Apple’s Next Game-Changer Hits New Milestone, Report Says
Unlike Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Honor and Google, Apple doesn’t have a folding phone. A new report suggests that Apple reached an important stage in the development in June, with the Prototype 1 phase. Apple will doubtless hope that it will be as game-changing as the original iPhone — read why it could be below.
Will Tim Cook be announcing a foldable iPhone in 2026?
A new report from DigiTimes says that means the phone is on target to be launched next year. “Apple has quietly entered the early stages of developing its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with supply chain sources confirming that the company began its initial P1 (Prototype 1) phase in June,” it said.
“If everything stays on track, the device could complete prototype testing by the end of 2025 and proceed to the Engineering Verification Test (EVT) stage, setting the stage for a possible launch in the second half of 2026,” the report went on. That means that only two years after the iPhone 16 Pro, we could see a folding iPhone.
Before that, there are two more prototyping phases before what 9to5Mac refers to as “the EVT phase, which is intended to confirm that the design is practical to manufacture,” it said.
Apple will be far from first to the folding phone market, but that’s rarely troubled the brand. There were smartphones before the iPhone, tablets before the iPad and even digital music players before the iPod.
Apple’s “don’t do it first, do it right,” mantra will likely guide the company for this project, too.
So, why could the Apple folding phone be a game-changer?
There’s one aspect of folding phones that seems to unify current users: they don’t like the highly visible crease that lines the center of the phone when it’s unfolded.
According to some reports such as ET News and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is determined to make this crease invisible, or at least much less noticeable than any previous folding phone.
The prototype news is good for those impatient for an iPhone Fold — in May this year Gurman said the folding phone would not arrive until 2027, so this new report contradicts that.