The foldable iPhone’s most important feature might not have mattered much after all

*Image credit — Talks Tech Newz

Foldable smartphones have been a popular category across the industry for years, but only now is Apple finally wrapping up work on a foldable iPhone. However, the main reason that the company delayed its foldable flagship for so long, its insistence on a crease-free display, might not be as important as Apple had thought.

How important is a crease-free display, really?

According to a recent poll, less than 30 percent of you actually claim that you won’t switch to foldable smartphones until the crease is completely eliminated. 27 percent of voters, meanwhile, said that it’s an important consideration during the purchase of a foldable phone, but far from the only factor when they’re weighing their options.

The largest subset of voters, a little over 33 percent, said that a crease-free folding display, though a “nice bonus”, was hardly essential. The remaining 10 percent of respondents said that they never really noticed creases on foldable phones anyway, so it was a non-issue for them. Which camp of voters do you most associate with personally?

The foldable iPhone would have sold regardless

As is quite clear from the poll, a foldable iPhone would have sold pretty well even if Apple had released one years ago with a prominent crease. As it stands, Apple fans have no foldables to choose from, unless they’re okay with switching to Android. A foldable iPhone would have, in my opinion, been a hit regardless of how it looked, simply because of a lack of options.

The greatest irony, though, is the possibility that the foldable iPhone coming later this year might still have a crease in the end, despite years of preparation.

What will Apple settle on?

Don’t get me wrong, a crease-free foldable iPhone is very possible, especially now that Samsung has basically solved the crease problem with its newest display. However, Apple might not opt for this fancy new display, at least not for the first generation of its foldable.

Component prices across the industry are skyrocketing due to high demands for new AI data centers. Some industry insiders are claiming that the foldable iPhone might have a slightly visible crease, as Apple might not use Samsung’s newest display to save on manufacturing costs.

If that really does happen, then it will mean that Apple delayed its foldable for years for something most people didn’t care about in the first place. Something that it didn’t even manage to accomplish in the end. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, though, just in case.