The foldable iPhone: what will it be good for?

An Office Hours question asked by Frederick H., July 31, 2026.

Q: What job does a foldable iPhone accomplish? Aren’t iPads suitable for a decent screen experience, and iPhones for what they do, with plenty good screens?

Honestly, I don’t feel I have that job to do. I have an iPad mini, in a waterproof case, and the new supposed Fold product — I don’t like to talk about rumors, but it is pretty believable by now — is not going to be that much smaller than this. And I don’t find myself reaching for the iPad mini if I have my iPhone in hand. Now, if it were to open up, maybe I would watch a few things there. But I’m still so used to the form factor of the iPhone that I’m not sure I would crave a new form factor. But then you never know.

One of the things that surprised me about my own job to be done: back in the day, remember when the iPhone was small. It was tiny — look at an original iPhone. Then the 4, then the 6, began to be bigger. Then there were the Max sizes, and I kept saying the problem with the Max, or any big iPhone, is that you can’t reach all the points on the screen with one hand. It becomes a two-handed device, and I thought that was inconvenient. I always thought the majority of people would prefer smaller phones that were easy to put in your pocket and completely usable with one hand. But it turned out I was wrong. Big screens were desirable. I myself ended up with one, and now I only get the Max form factor. So maybe we need to try it before we learn what it can be used for.

I have other reservations — durability reservations, price reservations. Any moving parts are bound to fail sooner than those without moving parts. But some people have convinced me that there is a significant market out there for this product, if only to demonstrate that you are able to buy one. That alone may drive sales for at least the first quarter or two. So it isn’t clear what the job is. I do believe, though, it’ll do fairly well.

The other thing against it is that the other fold products, from Samsung and others, haven’t done that great. They’ve been around for six years or more, and no one seems to say this is the greatest thing and everyone’s switching to it. Perhaps Apple’s version will be the perfect match, the perfect package, perfect in every way, that will cause adoption to take off. So I think it’s a wonderful addition to the portfolio, but perhaps again a little bit more towards the highest end, and limited in how many users will take it up. Let’s see how it goes.

Q (follow-up, Frederick H.): What would a foldable phone do to iPad interest? Is this an experiment? And how does this relate to the apparent convergence of Apple’s software platforms?

If, when you open it, it looks like an iPad mini — people are speculating about this — the operating system will be effectively two operating systems: the small screen and the big screen. Apple has a great interface for big screens in iPadOS. Then the question is: is there value in having your iPad in your pocket with you? I think it’s going to be an experiment. We’ll see how people and developers take to it.

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Editor’s Note: This was one of the questions asked by participants in Asymco’s July 2026 Office Hours live Q&A session, held the day after Apple’s FQ3 2026 earnings and open to Asymco One subscribers.

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