Apple Reportedly Prepping Thinner and Foldable iPhones to Boost Growth

After years of smaller updates, Apple is reportedly thinking big by thinking thin.

The tech giant plans to debut a new iPhone next year that will be thinner than current models, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (Dec. 15), citing sources familiar with the company’s plans.

The report said this model is intended to cost less than iPhone Pro models, with a simplified camera to cut costs, designed to serve as an alternative for consumers who want a sleek-looking phone and are OK with not having all the features offered in Pro models.

Meanwhile, Apple is also planning two foldable devices, the sources said, one that would double as a laptop and a smaller one that would be a foldable phone.

According to the report, both foldable devices have been in the works for years, though some crucial components weren’t ready, and Apple faces challenges to perfect the hinge that opens and closes the devices.

Sources told WSJ that Apple experimented with designs like having a display on the outside of the device when it is folded, but it is now in favor of an inward-folding design. The company is pushing to release the foldable iPhone in 2026, the sources added.

Jeff Pu, an analyst with Hong Kong-based brokerage Haitong International Securities, said that the foldable phones currently available aren’t thin, light or energy-efficient enough to meet Apple’s standards, which is why Apple has been slower to tackle this market.

PYMNTS has contacted Apple for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The news comes months after Huawei, one of Apple’s biggest smartphone rivals in the crucial Chinese market, introduced its own foldable phone just before the debut of the iPhone 16, which featured Apple’s artificial intelligence (AI) offerings.

Richard Yu, Huawei’s consumer group chief, announced the launch on social media platform Weibo, saying the company had spent five years on what is said to be the world’s first commercial-ready, twice-folding smartphone, and what Yu dubbed “an epoch-making product.”

Meanwhile, PYMNTS reported last month that while the smartphone market enjoyed a recovery during 2024 after two years of sharp declines, Apple played only a small role in that rebound.

Data from research firm IDC showed rival Android phones growing 7.6% this year in Asia (excluding Japan and China), Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, while iPhones sales were projected to climb only 0.4% for the year.

 

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