“Apple is launching a foldable device.”
This rumor has surfaced periodically over the past two years. Public reaction has evolved from initial excitement to mere acknowledgment – a shift tied both to Apple’s tendency to make big promises without delivery and the current adoption rate of foldable devices.
▲ Image source: Google
While foldable devices remain niche products, the technology has matured over these six years through market feedback. Major brands now display physical units in their physical stores, and an increasing number of relatives, colleagues, and friends have joined the foldable device community.
Moreover, compared to the initial five-figure price tags, foldable device prices have decreased due to technological maturity, cost control, and increased shipments. Entry-level foldable devices now cost about the same as flagship phones, making them more accessible rather than mere showpieces.
This time, Apple’s foldable device has attracted attention not for its latest technological advances, but for its planned entry into an even more niche market: foldable tablets.
Foldable iPad with No Crease
Apple’s foldable tablet rumor feels like the boy who cried wolf.
▲ Image source: Google
Two years ago, Bloomberg reporter Gurman detailed a 20-inch super-sized foldable iPad/MacBook hybrid. Recently, rumors emerged about a possible 7-8 inch small-screen foldable iPad expected to launch in 2026 or 2027.
In the latest Power On newsletter, Gurman wrote that Apple aims to launch a new iPad around 2028 with these features:
- Foldable with no crease
- 18.8-inch display, equivalent to two iPad Pros side by side
Moreover, the leak claims Apple’s industrial design team has successfully created a prototype of the foldable tablet, and we’ve discovered some interesting details in Apple’s patents.
Recently, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent related to foldable display devices.
▲ Image source: patentlyapple.com
The patent states:
The linkage structure is made of sheet material, including finger-like protrusions and crescent-shaped slots. During device folding, the accommodation pins can slide along the crescent-shaped slots, ensuring adjacent links rotate relative to each other around the rotation axis.
After reading the technical details in the patent document, we can broadly categorize this new patent’s features into four aspects:
- Better flexibility, improved hinge durability
- More stable and smooth folding due to shell rotation linkage mechanism
- Better screen wrapping during folding compared to traditional structures
- New patent applies to various foldable devices (phones, tablets, laptops) as a universal technology
▲ Image source: patentlyapple.com
From the description and appearance, this hinge structure doesn’t seem special, even appearing somewhat rudimentary. We only see the hinge technology, without any mention of the creaseless design described in the leak – a crucial point.
The “creaseless folding” feature would attract significant attention even in today’s mature market. It addresses one of the most notable flaws in current foldable products – one that causes minimal physical damage but maximum irritation and potential long-term issues.
Screen creases are directly related to hinge technology, flexible screen materials, and folding methods. The hinge directly determines the degree of bending at the fold. Current mainstream hinge technologies mainly fall into three types: “U-shaped,” “wing-shaped,” and “waterdrop.” However, all types lead to increased material fatigue with repeated folding, causing irreversible deformation and increasingly visible creases.
The folding method also affects crease depth. Currently, the least visible method is outward folding, as demonstrated by Huawei and Honor models, which maintain shallow creases even after extended use. However, outward-folding flexible screens lack shell and frame protection, typically resulting in shorter lifespans and increased vulnerability to damage.
Hinges, screens, and folding direction are both core technologies and the biggest constraints in achieving creaseless foldable phones. Even a reduction in crease visibility is celebrated as a core feature at product launches.
Therefore, achieving the ideal creaseless design requires more than just hinge innovation – it needs to consider hinge technology, screen materials, and folding methods together. How has Apple theoretically eliminated this “pain point”? The answer lies in another document.
▲ Image source: patentlyapple.com
To address both the hinge’s inherent unevenness and irreversible creasing after multiple folds, Apple has specially designed a polymer filling for the gaps between the flexible screen and hinge.
The polymer can be placed in grooves and gaps to fill visible and tangible surface irregularities, achieving a creaseless effect. It’s similar to pouring water over frosted glass – when the depressions are filled, the surface becomes smooth, and the frosted texture transforms into clear glass.
▲ Image source: patentlyapple.com
While the patent doesn’t specify the polymer’s composition, it suggests alternatives like glass rods or beads as hardening structures. These harder materials cover thinner or uneven areas to partially harden the flexible screen.
Using harder materials for filling offers two obvious advantages: it improves screen flatness and enhances flexible screen strength, particularly beneficial for gaming and stylus use by providing better screen support.
More importantly, after reinforcement, the flexible screen can fold smoothly through the hinge, and the additional hardened protection layer improves screen wrapping and stability after folding.
Technology is Just the First Hurdle
While the hinge technology and polymer filling principles sound simple, perhaps too simple, their practical implementation poses significant challenges. For reference, satellite and space station solar panel storage methods were inspired by origami, and Musk’s rocket recovery method borrowed from chopsticks and clip mechanisms.
Moreover, technical challenges are just the beginning – Apple’s foldable screen faces many more hurdles.
The first point in the leak, “creaseless folding,” could indeed be achieved through new materials and technologies, especially given their generous timeline. But is an 18.8-inch tablet size too large?
The 16-inch MacBook is currently Apple’s largest mobile screen product. While this size offers a more comfortable experience for movie watching and web browsing with a broader view, it creates portability issues. The size is somewhat large, and the weight is increasing – for professionals with photo and video editing needs, this size and weight approach the limit of what’s practical to carry in a bag.
When the iPad reaches 18.8 inches, even with folding capability, the weight increase and super-sized screen for a mobile device diverge from its inherent characteristics. The screen that once bridged phones and laptops now sits awkwardly between tablets and computers. With unclear positioning and no clear target user base, poor sales seem inevitable.
Beyond hardware challenges, software-hardware integration remains a common challenge in the foldable screen market.
There’s been growing demand for macOS on iPads in recent years, primarily because iPadOS’s multi-app adaptation merely stretches iOS versions forcefully, resulting in poor screen utilization without truly leveraging the tablet’s large display advantages.
Rather than using a large-screen version of iOS, users prefer the purpose-built macOS, which looks and feels more natural. Additionally, while iOS focuses on portrait orientation and macOS on landscape, iPadOS must accommodate both interface adaptations.
Therefore, to truly maximize tablet advantages, beyond increasing screen size, the operating system needs broader scenario adaptation. Encouragingly, this might become reality, as Gurman mentioned in the leak:
The foldable iPad will incorporate both Mac and iPad elements, and by 2028, iPadOS should be advanced enough to run macOS applications.
Finally, there are market constraints. According to Counterpoint Research, foldable smartphone display shipments declined year-over-year for the first time in Q3 2024, with projections showing continued decline in 2025.
▲ Image source: DSCC
Note that this decline comes from an already modest market share. In 2023, China’s foldable phone market shipments were approximately 7.007 million units, while total smartphone shipments reached 289 million units – foldables represented just 2% of the total.
Therefore, whether it’s the iPhone Flip or iPad Fold, both face various internal and external challenges. The future of Apple’s foldable products mirrors its current AI situation – it’s coming, just later than expected.
Of course, if Apple can turn these theoretical and patent demonstrations into reality, would a zero-crease foldable screen capture your interest?