It now seems pretty obvious that Apple will start mass-producing two foldable devices during the second half of 2026 with an eye on a late 2026 or early 2027 release. The two devices include one model that opens up to reveal an 18.8-inch screen. The other model will be a book-style iPhone foldable with a 7.8-inch inner display that closes like the Galaxy Z Fold series. Analyst Jeff Pu wrote about these two devices in a research note with GF Securities.
Pu might have cleared up one mystery relating to the 18.8-inch foldable device. Some questioned whether it would be considered a Mac or an iPad. But Pu might have answered this by stating in his note that the large-screened foldable will run macOS and not iPadOS. This is despite the analyst himself calling the device a MacBook-iPad hybrid. But with macOS pre-installed, the 18.8-inch foldable seems more likely to be closer to the MacBook than the iPad Pro.
At this moment it seems that the foldable MacBook (for lack of a better title) will not feature a dedicated physical QWERTY which would make this model the first touchscreen Mac. And with the ability to close like a laptop, this device is looking more and more like a foldable Mac than a foldable iPad. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently wrote in his Power On newsletter that iOS 19 and macOS 16 will be the software that gets Apple ready for new hardware including “foldable devices and touch-screen Macs.”
Even though both foldable models will be undergoing mass production at around the same time next year, it will be the foldable MacBook that will be considered the first Apple foldable to get released. Apple has reportedly stayed away from offering a foldable because it was concerned about the durability of the screen. A foldable MacBook would seem less likely to end up in a user’s pocket where it might be more likely to break.
In February 2024 a report noted that Apple had been buying foldable phones from rivals such as Samsung. Using reverse engineering Apple was said to have used a Samsung foldable display to build a prototype foldable iPhone. However, what Apple feared the most happened as the Samsung display “broke down after a few days.”Apple also is hoping to end the scourge of the foldable phone industry by eliminating the crease. The latter is the indentation that appears on a foldable screen where the device folds. While the crease is less noticeable now than it was a few years ago, Apple reportedly has come up with a solution that would end this curse. Another problem with foldables, their high sticker price, will not be cured with Apple’s entry into the foldable market.The rumored MacBook foldable could carry a Vision Pro-like price tag near $3,500. Meanwhile, a foldable iPhone might be priced in a range between $2,000-$2,500 according to analysts who have been trying to figure out what Apple might charge for its foldable devices.
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