Apple was certainly the smartphone brand in the past that brings new technologies and features for a smartphone be it the cloud storage, digital assistant, face lock, notch design, and several new camera features. 

Even in the recent release of the iPhone 12, Apple released LiDAR tech for its camera system, the first of its kind. 

But there are other things that matter and Apple kind of falls behind other companies. For example, Apple recently provided 5G technology in its iPhone 12 but companies like Samsung and Huawei had launched 5G smartphones in the last year. 

The reason being that Huawei and Samsung are top companies of overall 5g and even leading top 5g chip makers also. So, it makes sense that both companies have the expertise to launch a 5g smartphone before Apple. 

It’s true that 5G is not mainstream but it affects the company’s reputation to bring technology in your product that your competitor is providing for more than a year. 

And 5G is not the only case, Samsung, Huawei, even Motorola already have their own foldable phone which they also release in the past year. Samsung already has a prototype for a Z-Fold phone. 

Samsung even has gone ahead with a rollable display that mentioned in one of its patent applications and Oppo even showcased the working concept of a rollable display smartphone. 

https://youtu.be/9ujiXg0hMOs 

Apple is still far away from making a foldable display as they haven’t mentioned anything related to it. 

But after reading one of Apple’s recent patent applications, it looks like the company finally working on a foldable phone. 

An Apple patent application got published the last week in the USPTO that mentioned a prototype related to a foldable phone. 

The independent claim says: 

A foldable electronic device, comprising: a housing having a first housing portion and a second housing portion coupled with hinge structures, wherein the hinge structures include first members and second members respectively configured to rotate relative to each other about respective pivot points; and a flexible display that overlaps the first housing portion, the hinge structures, and the second housing portion, wherein the pivot points lie within the flexible display.

It’s simply a description of a foldable phone in patent language. 

The filing date of the patent is Feb 2020, so it could be possible that Apple would release its foldable iPhone in 2021. 

Samsung is, as of now, dominating the foldable phone market with some prediction that the company will sell 4 million devices and capture 80% of the market. 

Apple has a great fan base especially in one of the biggest smartphone markets, i.e. the US. But the company is struggling in the biggest smartphone market, China, where it has an 8% market share.

Further, foldable phones might be now a priority for some companies now as they are going to be the future of smartphones. Samsung for example, rumored to stop working on its Note Series and will move the focus more on the premium Foldable Z Series. 

Other companies are also working on Foldable phones too like Nokia, Xiaomi, One Plus, etc.

And the midst of such companies and competition, how will things turn out for Apple will be an interesting sight to witness.

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