Apple's first-ever foldable iPhone may launch in 2023

Rumors were rife that Apple had approached LG to develop the display of the first-ever foldable iPhone. This wasn’t the first time we heard rumors of foldable iPhone, however. While the rumors about the device have been doing the rounds for quite a while now, we’re unaware of when we can expect Apple’s foldable phone. This changes today with Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claiming that Apple’s first-ever foldable phone could launch in 2023.

According to the Apple analyst, Apple is currently working on an 8-inch foldable iPhone that has a QHD+ flexible OLED display and is planning to ship 15 to 20 million iPhones in 2023. While the company is eyeing 2023 to launch the device, the analyst said that the development work hadn’t kicked off yet.

Based on our latest industry survey, we forecast that Apple will likely launch a foldable ?iPhone? with an 8-inch QHD+ flexible OLED display in 2023, with SDC as the exclusive display supplier and Samsung Foundry as the exclusive DDI foundry provider. Based on Apple’s requested capacity plan, we predict that the foldable ?iPhone? shipments will reach 15-20 million units in 2023. We expect that the foldable ?iPhone? will adopt TPK’s silver nanowire touch solution because of its several advantages over SDC’s Y-Octa technology.

Kuo is of the opinion that the foldable devices will blurr the product segmentaions between smartphones, tablets, and laptops in the future and that foldable smartphone is one of the design application of the foldable design. The analyst also believes that foldable smartphone will become a “must-have” for all major smartphone brands.

Apart from Apple, Google, OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi are also working on their first-ever foldable smartphones. But except for Apple, others are likely to release their foldable phones  by the end of this year.

via Macrumors