Apple is about to steal Huawei's wide foldable fame and make a big iPhone Fold hit

That's not forbidden.

In fact, thank God for such inspiration. Where would we be without it?!

It would be a major bummer if it were only Apple that had a touchscreen phone, right? I'm aware that the touchscreen phone concept had been explored decades before Steve Jobs, but it was in 2007 that touchscreens were successfully released to the masses. You can say that Apple revolutionized the market and started something huge.

Fast forward to 2026: Cupertino might do it again with its upcoming iPhone Fold (that's an unofficial moniker for a lack of a proper one). Apple's first-ever foldable smartphone is expected to arrive in some months time, possibly alongside the iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone 18 Pro in September. On a side note, the "vanilla" iPhone 18 might arrive in early 2027.

Sure, this won't be the world's first foldable. Quite the contrary: dozens of Android foldables are already out there and have been for years now. Just think of the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip series by Samsung: these are not counted as "exotic" anymore, just "niche".

The potential iPhone Fold, if rumors are to be believed, will not be anything like current Galaxy Z Fold foldables, nor like similar models made by Vivo, Oppo, Google, or the rest of the gang.

The iPhone Fold might be like one of Huawei's foldables; the iPhone Fold could be wider instead of square-ish.

Huawei was first, but US users couldn't care less

Credit where credit is due: Huawei's Pura X is the first to this particular game. True, technically, it could be counted as a clamshell (not a book-style foldable), but its wider aspect ratio is exactly what sets it apart from the rest of the bending phones out there.

Now, that's great and all, but because of the US-imposed sanctions on Huawei, users in the US couldn't care less about it. Huawei phones are generally perceived as trouble, and I'm not talking about eventual privacy issues. I'm talking about software:



Huawei is said to be working on a second-generation Pura X phone, but I'd bet a reasonable amount of money that it will too be a China-exclusive device.

But why the need for wide foldables?

In a word: media consumption. I'm perfectly fine with the square-ish form factor of today's book-style foldables, but the same can't be said for people who crave video above all.

It makes much more sense to binge-watch videos and clips on a horizontally wider device than on a square one. This doesn't apply for TikTok junkies and Reels maniacs, but some of us (like, billions of us) still like YouTube.

We can think of "traditional" and "wide" foldables in terms of "spaghetti western" versus "traditional western" movies.

Both are similar, but they're not the same.

Furthermore, Samsung is sold on the idea with its potential Galaxy Z Wide Fold. So it seems that wide foldables will be a thing soon.

So what's the deal with Apple's foldable?

I'm firmly on Team Android, and I feel I need to state this right now for my personal safety. I've never owned an iPhone, nor a Mac or an iPad. Of the three, I'd probably give the tablet a try, but that's not the point: the point is that I have no trouble criticizing Apple… and I often do.

Today, however, I'm turning things upside down and I'll tell you precisely why I can't wait for the iPhone Fold to hit the shelves, regardless of the fact that I wouldn't buy one.

Personally, I'm far from the idea that the iPhone Fold could be some kind of tech revelation: leaks can screech about this device's potential "crease-free" display all they want. Until I see it (yes, at an angle and under a lamp) and feel it, I won't believe it. Besides, first-generation devices typically suffer from teething problems. Thirdly, and most importantly, there's no such thing as a perfect phone.

I don't need the iPhone Fold to be perfect, though, I just need it to finally materialize, damn it.

Apple's big contribution

So, is Apple late to the party? Oh, yeah. Cupertino has long lost any claim to the pioneer title when it comes to foldable phones.

But will Apple succeed with the iPhone Fold? I think so. I'd say it's going to be a hit in a very important aspect – it could finally introduce the foldable genre to millions of people.

Let's end on a positive note: even if the iPhone Fold is not the ultimate foldable per se, Apple's commitment to the genre will finally move it out of the "niche" category.

Many avoid foldables not just because of the eye-watering price tags on those things, but also because foldables are perceived as fragile and too odd to bother with. Apple will not invent the steel, but it will reinvent it instead: it will popularize foldables.

That's not to say the iPhone Fold will be the ultimate foldable. But that's not the point. Heck, it doesn't matter if the phone is not 100% polished (as first-generation devices tend to be) or even if it's imperfect in some ways.

We know that Apple fans just love Apple products.

Yes, the iPhone Air was an embarrassing flop, but it's not something a nice, juicy price discount can't fix, as the latest reports from China clearly show. Besides, it could be the case that the iPhone 17 series was so good that it drove attention away from the Air newcomer. Anyway, Apple has always struggled with a certain model in its iPhone lineup, be it the Mini models or the Plus variant.