Samsung Display shuffles its foldable unit as it prepares to supply foldable Apple devices

While Samsung currently dominates the worldwide foldable phone market, some analysts will tell you that the low 1.6% penetration rate of foldables won't see a giant leap until Apple releases a foldable iPhone. Rumors about such a device have been all over the place over the last few years and even reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International originally called for Apple to ship 15 million to 20 million foldable iPhone models by this year.

Since then, there have been other rumors posted online by Kuo including one calling for a foldable iPad or an iPad/iPhone hybrid foldable to surface by 2025. Whatever form an Apple foldable takes, Samsung Display is getting ready to be a supplier for it. According to TheElec (via AppleInsider), the Korean tech giant has made some organizational changes that would help Samsung Display ship foldable iPhone and MacBook Pro panels.

The changes being made to Sammy's Display unit are being made to the team that handles the supplies that Samsung ships to Apple. The goal is to improve the capabilities of Sammy's display unit, especially when it comes to shipping Apple possible foldable panels. The change to the division is based on the premise that foldable devices are becoming more mainstream, a goal that Samsung's Dr. TM Roh, who is president and head of Sammy's Mobile Experience Business, said was going to take place last year.

The company will be reducing the importance of the unit's Strategic Marketing Office as the business segment attempts to improve operating efficiency and increase collaboration between sales, marketing, and product planning. And all of this will revolve around creating foldable panels for Apple.

As we said earlier in this article, to become mainstream the foldable smartphone market is going to need a device from Cupertino. While Apple might not be the most innovative company in the smartphone business, it remains the most influential. When Apple dropped the 3.5mm earphone jack from the iPhone, and removed the charging brick from the iPhone box, these moves were quickly copied by other manufacturers.

LG Display is also said to be working on foldable panels for future Apple foldable devices. The report by TheElec notes that one of the foldable displays being developed for Apple weighs in at 20.25 inches and back in July the same source said that Apple was working on a foldable MacBook Pro that would arrive in 2025 with a 20.5-inch foldable screen. 

One patent application previously filed by Apple matches a current rumor about how the foldable MacBook Pro might handle text input. When content on the display calls for text input, the bottom half of the display would show a virtual QWERTY keyboard. This way Apple would not have to worry about designing a physical keyboard for its foldable computer.