Apple could make Samsung's concept a success.
This blog has discussed the problems with foldable phones. Samsung is finally delivering their Galaxy Fold next month, and Huawei is about to release theirs. Both releases come after several setbacks. However, it appears that Apple isn’t afraid and will eventually enter the foldables market.
According to CNET, Apple is looking to first launch a foldable iPad in 2021.
“According to an investor’s note from UBS cited by CNBC Apple is ‘steadily working on the technology,’ first for the iPad and then for the iPhone, but it likely won’t be ready for prime time until 2021.”
The article adds that this really shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially when based on many patents Apple has filed over the past couple of years. It’s just that most expected the iPhone to get a crease before the iPad. One can expect any foldable device that Apple releases to cost a fortune.
Apple will likely revitalize the iPad in the next few years.
However, anybody who frowns on Apple’s efforts doesn’t fully understand the history of the company. Remember the clunky (but cool) portable MP3 players in 2000 and 2001? Apple was late to the game in late 2001, but made the iPod one one of the most important devices in history. Apple literally changed the way music was purchased, consumed, and spread.
Remember the smartphones of the early 2000s? They were clunky, unreliable, and had terrible battery life. When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, they changed the course of communications history. Now, just about everybody has a smartphone that is either an iPhone or influenced by it.
Apple made the regular smartphone mainstream. They can do the same with foldable devices.
Remember how Microsoft failed with tablet? Their devices had poor battery life, and Windows didn’t quite work fluidly on a tablet in the 2000s. Apple released the iPad in 2010, and it became so successful that many now think Apple invented the computer tablet.
With the exception of the AirPods, Apple has certainly fallen behind the times in terms of innovation. The iPhone is no longer ahead of the pack, the iPad isn’t as popular as it used to be, and the MacBook Pro is no longer the premium notebook to own.
Despite not being the leader of the pack, Apple still remains the leader of quality. The Cupertino company doesn’t announce a product unless it has been well tested and ready for consumers. In 2019, Samsung and Huawei’s foldable devices likely won’t make a dent in the marketplace. But in the next decade, expect Apple to make foldable devices mainstream.
