It looks like Apple might be considering its very own foldable smartphone according to a patent application published last week. The news comes after Samsung unveiled its impressive but incredibly expensive new device, the Galaxy Fold.
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But it’s far from a knee-jerk reaction to Samsung’s announcement, as the design plans were filed back in October last year, which means Apple has probably been working away at the concept for a little while now.
The application itself details a display with hinges for folding in half or even thirds. Rather than describing a phone specifically, the display could be applied to anything from tablets, laptops, wearables, and, of course, smartphones.
“It would be desirable to be able to use flexible display technology to provide improved electronic devices,” the application reads.
As always, this is still just an application, so nothing has been approved by the patent office yet. In other words, a foldable iPhone is probably a little while off yet. Some folks reckon we’ll see one in 2020 and given Samsung has gotten in ahead of them, it probably makes sense for the company to see how its competitor fares with the idea before they release their own.
There’s no local release date for the Galaxy Fold just yet, but the US will cop it in late April. The price tag is sure to make your eyes water, as well, clocking in at just under $2,000 USD, which means we can probably expect to pay close to $3,000 for it.
Samsung also announced its new line of Galaxy S10 phones yesterday, so if that’s more your speed, for now, you can suss out some of the best plans for it below.
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