According to new rumors from China, Apple has paused the development of foldable iPhones due to the failure of the company's own rigorous testing standards for the first commercial display.
Apple has been testing rival foldable phones as part of the foldable device research and development process, which is believed to have been ongoing since 2016, according to Fixed Focus Digital, a Guangdong Weibo tech blogger with a large Chinese following.
At least one foldable product that Apple is testing is said to use a display made by Samsung. Samsung is a major supplier of display panels used in Apple devices, and it is known that it has provided Apple with samples of foldable displays in the past. A recent report also claims that in anticipation of the arrival of Apple's first foldable product, Samsung has been trying to improve operational efficiency by integrating the expertise it has gained since 2019 in manufacturing foldable devices.
However, today's rumors** claim that Samsung's latest folding panel "crashed after a few days" under Apple's rigorous internal testing, which has led Apple to put the entire project on hold for the foreseeable future, or at least until one display can achieve it. It can be developed if it meets its high standards.
Apple has been actively working on prototypes of at least two foldable iPhones after more than five years of research and development, as reported by The Information earlier this month. The two iPhone prototypes are said to be able to fold horizontally like flip covers, but they don't appear in Apple's 2024 or 2025 product roadmap. The report states that foldable iPhones could still be canceled if they don't meet Apple's standards.
The Weibo account that claims to have received information about Apple's suspension of the foldable project is largely unknown, and as far as we know, there is no record of Apple rumors before, so doubts about its accuracy are justified.
It's unclear whether this accusation will affect Apple's ongoing development efforts on the foldable iPad. Apple is rumored to be more interested in such a device, which could be thicker than a foldable iPhone, as users wouldn't expect it to be in their pocket and wouldn't need to go through the iPhone's high durability requirements.
Earlier this month, South Korea's ** The Elec reported that Apple is considering launching its first foldable device in the next few years, with a size of 7 to 8 inches, which could eventually replace the 83-inch iPad mini.