Apple’s foldable iPhone is the perfect trap that has Samsung scrambling

Apple took its sweet time with the foldable iPhone, leaving Samsung to do all of the heavy lifting.

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Foldable iPhone realistic render
Expect the foldable iPhone to look kind of like this. | Image by Ben Geskin
The smartphone industry has waited years for Apple to enter the foldable flagship segment, something that is finally becoming a reality later this year with the foldable iPhone. Though there have been particular reasons for the company’s severely delayed entry into this market — durability concerns and a desire to eliminate the display crease — there is also another tactic at play here.

The foldable iPhone might just have been the perfect trap for Apple’s largest competitor: Samsung. We can already see the latter scrambling to push out a rival device this year before the foldable iPhone, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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In Apple’s years of delays, the company has managed to turn the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and upcoming Samsung foldables into its own marketing campaign.

A very different approach




For starters, the foldable iPhone is based on a very different design from what most of the consumer base is accustomed to. Unlike the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 or the recently released Oppo Find N6, Apple’s foldable flagship will instead look a lot like the Huawei Pura X: a wide-folding design that is wider than it is tall when unfolded.

Details about app support on the foldable iPhone reveal that the company wishes to provide an iPad-like experience on the phone when it’s unfolded. The effect that these reports about the phone’s design have had is very obvious: Samsung immediately began work on a supposed Galaxy Z Wide Fold that will release alongside the Fold 8. Clearly, if the wide-folding design is about to catch on, Samsung does not want to be left behind.

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But the foldable iPhone isn’t just a threat to the Galaxy foldables because of its design. For all we know, this form factor might not sell well at all, forcing Apple to adopt a more traditional design instead. This is why the company has, according to many reports, played its hand so cleverly that Samsung is at risk of getting checkmated.

The foldable iPhone is competitively priced




According to multiple reports, the foldable iPhone’s pricing could start as low as $1,999. If this is true, then Apple has somehow managed to avoid the premium tax that many of us expected its foldable smartphone to have. This is the same price that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 starts at, so any cost advantage that Samsung might have been betting on has been thrown out the window.

It’s not just the Apple name and the price tag that’s going to drive sales for the foldable iPhone, however. For all intents and purposes, the company’s upcoming foldable is a very competent piece of kit by itself.

The phone will come with 12 GB of RAM, just like the Fold 7, and start at 256 GB of storage, also like the Fold 7. It will be powered by the 2 nm A20 Pro chip that is also expected to be used in the iPhone 18 Pro models and its cameras are sure to be very capable as well.

Most importantly, perhaps, it will feature a very advanced hinge and a display that has a very shallow crease across it. Reports allege that the crease on the foldable iPhone is less noticeable than the already much improved crease on the Fold 7.

In addition, Apple has let Samsung beta test foldable smartphones on the public for years. We’ve seen phones break, displays crack, and even the latest $2,899 Galaxy Z TriFold run into problems with fragile screens that stop working after some time.

Samsung did all the work for Apple


In short, Apple has let Samsung work out all the kinks and is now ready to drop a phone that is powerful, different, and literally gives the Galaxy foldables a run for their money. Now that Samsung has all but perfected the traditional foldable formula, Apple sees it fit to swoop in and try to snatch the crown away from the Fold series.

What aspect is going to help the foldable iPhone the most?
3 Votes


I don’t think Samsung expected Apple to price its foldable the same as the Galaxy Z Fold phones. Suffice to say, this year is going to be a very interesting one for the foldable smartphone industry.

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