A folding iPad could bring much larger screens to Apple’s tablet lineup.
Rumors claim foldable Apple products could dominate the second half of the 2020s, leveraging new screen technology to make devices such as the iPad even more portable.
Analyst Jeff Pu has been a leading advocate for a foldable tablet, expecting to see the so-called iPhone Fold debut in late 2026. This would be followed by iPads that use the same screen technology a year or so later.
Bloomberg columnist Mark Gurman, however, expects the Fold to appear in 2027, alongside folding iPads. Gurman has previously reported that Apple continues to plan for foldable devices as well as robotic devices to finally begin arriving in the latter half of the 2020s.
Meanwhile, some rumors have suggested that the first popular foldable might actually be a future iPad mini.
These reports believe it is a device that has an outer screen resembling the ones on current iPhones when folded up. Unfolded, the device would boast a larger screen close to the existing iPad mini in size.
Touchscreen and foldable Mac portables
Apple executives have traditionally downplayed the idea of a touchscreen Mac. If it were to ever appear, it would likely take the form of a portable Mac, like the MacBook Pro.
Apple has filed patents suggesting a traditional notebook computer with a touchscreen and how that might work. However, Apple’s Senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, has previously expressed doubt about the ergonomics of a laptop screen a user would touch to activate icons or services.
“We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface,” he said in 2018. “Lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do.”
That has not stopped the company from filing patents on the technology, however.
Some patents cover both a touchscreen display as well as a more advanced version of the existing trackpad currently found on Mac portables. However, Apple executives have traditionally resisted the idea of fusing a touchscreen Mac with an iPad.
Another factor limiting the arrival of foldable Apple devices is cost. Rival folding devices, like the $2,565 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6, don’t sell in large numbers due to their very high price.
Folding tablets would likely be even more expensive, to say nothing of a foldable MacBook. Until the screen technology needed for folding touchscreens comes down dramatically in cost, Apple is unlikely to debut larger touchscreen devices.
