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and I noticed that about. 50. 5% of you are not subscribed to the show. That means 45% of you are subscribed. And I really do. Appreciate. Your support? For the other 50. 5% of you are awesome, but I'm going to ask you for a favor. Could you? Please hit. The subscribe button, it'll take you one second. I'm going to promise you 10 years of this podcast for free, no pay walls. I'm not going to charge you anything ever, but I'm going to give you 10 years of this show for free.
I've already been doing it for five years and I plan on doing it for 10 more. And the only way that we can continue doing this is with your support. So one second of your time to hit the subscribe button right now would help the show tremendously. Thank you so much. Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for its first foldable iPhone. That production target is more than 30% higher than what the
display industry has expected. I honestly didn't see those numbers coming, and the foldable iPhone has been a rumor for years, constantly slipping further into the future. But now Foxconn is stockpiling components and mass production is scheduled for summer of 2026. IDC forecasts that Apple will capture 22% of the foldable market in its first year. So why does everyone think Apple is about to dominate a category Samsung has owned since all the way back in 2019?
Now, the device is expected to launch in fall 2026 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models like normal, and the price could be about $2400. Now we're going. To walk through the leaked design. Specs. The technical features that Apple is betting on and what this means for Samsung's seven-year head start in foldables. And we'll be right back after this break to get into that. Now Apple is finally building a foldable iPhone.
The company has been filing patents on foldable technology for over a decade, but it never shipped any products. Now, supply chain reports indicate the. Foxconn. Entered the engineering validation stage and is preparing for mass production now. This could be a phone that folds in half like a book, fits in your pocket when it's closed, and opens into something the size of an. IPad Mini. And it will be thinner than all other phones on the market, guaranteed.
They wouldn't put out a brick, but here is a really key. Point. Apple's using a book style design that folds horizontally, similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series. When closed you get a 5.5 inch outer display that works like a normal iPhone. When opened, the device reveals a 7.8 inch inner screen. The photo measure between 9 and 9.5mm when folded and around 4.6 to 4.8mm when. Old folder. That's thinner than any foldable Samsung currently sells.
Now the crease is the problem. Apple thinks that it is solved. A crease is the visible line that forms along the fold of a foldable display where the hinge sits. Every foldable phone on the market has 1. Apple is reportedly using a metal plate inside the display that disperses the stress generated by bending. The company is also using liquid metal in the hinges to improve durability. And if Apple ships a foldable with no visible crease, that would be a genuine first to the
market. Now the camera system AJP Morgan Research report says the foldable iPhone will feature a 24 megapixel under display camera built into the inner screen. Under display cameras hide the lens beneath the screen so there's no visible cut out or punch hole. And the technology exists on some Android phones, but those cameras typically use 4 to 8 megapixel sensors because image quality suffers when light passes through display layers. A 24 megapixel under display
camera would be a huge leap. That suggests Apple has achieved something other manufacturers have not and are probably using some sort of computational AI software to get a good look out of this thing. And the photable iPhone will skip Face ID apparently, and use Touch ID in a side button instead. Apple needs to save internal space and the Face ID sensor array is pretty bulky. The face will also lack a physical SIM slot.
The rear camera system will be a dual lens set up with 248 megapixel sensors, which is less capable than the triple lens system on the Pro models. So this is a new category with its own set of trade-offs. The price is the number that can make or break this device. Estimates range from 2000 to $2400. Fuban Research, citing supply chain data, expects the phone to cost around $2399.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 cost $1999, Google's Pixel 10 Pro Fold cost 1799, and Apple would be entering the market at a steep premium. Some think this is like an iPhone Ultra, that it might be the name of it more than the iPhone fold. Because iPhone fold be kind of boring. It's like Galaxy Fold and Pixel Fold. They want to be different, right? So the iPhone Ultra.
So what do we know, right? Now a. Survey from KeyBank found that 45% of iPhone users are interested in a foldable device, but 65% of those people said they would only consider buying one if it cost less than $1500. It creates a huge gap Apple's expected price 60% higher than the threshold most interested buyers set for themselves. The company is betting that its brand, its ecosystem, and its technical advantages will justify that premium.
In IDC, forecasted Apple will capture 34% of total foldable market value in its first year, even though it will only have 22% of units shipped. That gap exists because Apple's device will be priced so much higher than the competition in dollar terms. Apple could become the biggest foldable brand immediately, and by 2028, IDC projects Apple will hold 34% of the foldable market by units, with Android brands combined holding 52%. That's a huge shift. Samsung is not standing still, though.
As usual, the company will launch something, and they launched the Galaxy Z trifold this month, a device with two hinges that opens into a 10 inch display. It'll arrive in the US in early 2026, months before the Apple's foldable. Samsung is also preparing the Galaxy Z Fold eight in a second Fold model with a different form factor. Huawei is expanding aggressively, too, and IDC expects its foldable shipments to nearly double in 2026 on the strengths of its Harmony OS
platform. In China now, the foldable market is still pretty small. Shipments hit about 18.7 million units in 2024, which is roughly 1.5% of the 1.2 billion smartphones shipped globally. IDC expects that. To grow. To 20.6 million units in 2026, as Samsung's trifold launches early and Apple's device closes out the year. And the category isn't niche,
but the margins are very high. Average selling prices for foldables are three times higher than smartphones, and Apple tends to be a catalyst for mainstream adoption. The iPhone defined touchscreens. The iPhone defined tablets. The Apple Watch set standards for wearables. If the foldable iPhone follows that pattern, the entire category could shift from early adopter novelty to something
ordinary consumers consider. Samsung has spent seven years and seven generations refining its foldable tech. Apple has spent zero. But Apple has a user base that trust it to enter a category only when the product is completely ready. Whether the foldable iPhone lives up to that trust will determine if 2026 becomes the year foldables finally matter to the regular public. Hey, thank you so much for. Listening today, I really.
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