Patent shows that Apple could be working on its own foldable iPhone

Foldable screens and smartphones are not something only seen in Hollywood movies anymore. Samsung seems to have one almost ready to reach the market, and other manufacturers have also shown interested or hinted that they are working on this technology.

Unsurprisingly, Apple seems to also be in that group. Several patent applications by the Cupertino company, along with a more recent one, titled “Electronic device with wrap around display”, is a really clear indication, and a Bank of America analyst thinks that it will be Apple’s next big thing, pointing to a launch by 2020.

It also seems that Apple is going for OLED displays, which is understandable. They are made of individual pixels, thus making it possible for them to be manipulated in ways that LCDs just cannot.

More about the possible foldable iPhone

It seems that Apple is not going for a “conventional” design – at least if you consider Samsung’s take on the foldable phone to be a proper design choice. In this patent, Apple seems to present a “wrap-around” device, which extends a foldable display all around a device.

On a previous patent, the choice went to a scroll-like design, in which you basically unrolled the display out of two opposite cylinders. We have to go back to 2016 to find a patent with a design that really resembles the Samsung foldable phone.

It really seems that foldable smartphones and screens will be among us very soon – another good example is LG’s rollable OLED display, presented at this year’s CES. With so many companies working on their own version of a foldable phone, it comes as no surprise that Apple will not be left behind and comes up with its own devices.

However, it seems that it will still take a while for those devices to be ready for market, so let’s just sit and see what unfolds.

What do you think about foldable phones? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• This Apple Watch case is the iPod we never got and probably don’t deserve
• Apple’s T2 security chip is so secure that it blocks some third-party repairs
• Google Photos for iOS now lets you edit your Portrait Mode photos with depth editing and color pop