Despite Apple having lodged several patents for folding hardware, including even a foldable watch phone, years-old rumours about a foldable iPhone or foldable iPad have always seemed like a bit of a myth. But those rumours have been getting much more specific of late.
We recently heard a suggestion that Apple plans to launch a $2,000 foldable iPhone next year. Now, it's being said that 2026 will see not only an iPhone Fold but an iPad Fold too. Two separate foldable devices in one year without waiting for feedback on the first sounds like a rash move. But what if they're the same product?
The latest rumour comes from analyst Jeff Pu. 9to5Mac reports that he's claiming in a research note that Apple that will release both a a 7.8-inch foldable iPhone and an 18.8-inch foldable iPad next year.
A hugely expensive folding device could be quite a niche product. Perhaps not so niche as the Vision Pro, but of limited mass appeal all the same. So releasing two risky new products in the same year sounds unlikely. But they could be two models of the same device.
Apple likes to make its products sound like a new invention. Consider its late entry into AI. It waited to see how other companies' efforts were received and finally burst into the fray by revealing 'Apple Intelligence' as if it had just invented AI.
Samsung's been making foldable phones for ages, and delights in rubbing that in Apple's face. And Google got on board with the Pixel Fold in 2023. Merely releasing a foldable iPhone or iPad this late after its rivals wouldn't be very Apple.
Apple's folding devices are rumoured to have a disinguishing feature to set them apart: no crease. To hype that as much as possible, it would be more Apple if the tech giant billed this not as part of the iPad or iPhone family but an entirely new line of its own: an iFold, if you will.
Folding phones already blur the line between tablet and phone, so it could make sense to market the tablet and phone as the same device in two sizes: a vanilla phone-sized iFold and a tablet-sized iFold Pro.
This is all total speculation. Bloomberg's regular Apple crystal ball gazer Mark Gurman has said that he expects a foldable iPhone in 2026 and a "a giant iPad that unfolds into the size of two iPad Pros side-by-side" in 2028.
Some are saying that either Gurman and Jeff Pu must be wrong: the foldable iPad is coming in 2026 or it's coming in 2028. But they could both be right if next year's 'iPad Fold' is simply a larger version of the 'iPhone Fold', while Mark's 'giant iPad' could either be an 'Ultra' version, or something else entirely (a foldable MacBook maybe?). It all means that autumn 2026 could be one of Apple’s most exciting product seasons for a long time.
