Apple Slows Down on ‘iPad Fold’
Credit: MacRumors
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As Apple marches toward the release of its first foldable iPhone, the company appears to have put its plans for a larger folding device on the back burner.
Reports on Apple’s ambitions to create a foldable laptop-tablet hybrid — be it under the iPad or MacBook brand — go back to at least 2019, when sources revealed Apple was working on a new iPad model that would feature a MacBook-sized screen and be among the first to support 5G technology. The design was said to be in the same clamshell style as a laptop, but with a display that would extend to both sides.
At that time, the device was seen as a long-term effort. Folding screen technology was far from ready for something so ambitious, and Apple hadn’t even brought 5G to the iPhone in 2019. The first 5G-capable iPads weren’t expected until 2021 — a prediction that turned out to be remarkably prescient.
While rumors of an iPhone Fold or iPhone Flip continued to circulate, we heard little more about the idea of a larger Apple foldable until early 2022, when display analyst Ross Young revealed that Apple was investigating 20-inch folding screen technology. “This size could create a new category for Apple and would result in a true dual use product,” Young said at the time, although nobody had any firm ideas on whether this would be a MacBook, an iPad, or something else entirely.
By late 2023, some supply chain analysts suggested that a foldable iPad might debut as early as the fall of 2024. That obviously didn’t happen, but it led many to believe that Apple was still pursuing this angle. Last May, Ming-Chi Kuo shared a report that Apple was developing an 18.8-inch panel, which would roughly correspond to the size of a 13- to 14-inch MacBook when folded. Kuo noted that Apple’s priority is to make these panels crease-free, which has been a challenge faced by every folding smartphone maker. Ross Young chimed in the same day to confirm Kuo’s report, adding that Apple was going with the smaller size to reduce costs.
It was anybody’s guess as to when we might see such a device. Neither Kuo nor Young offered any insight on this, but Apple’s insistence on a crease-free screen has likely been the company’s biggest challenge in bringing it to market. In December, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman put a number on it, sharing that he’d been told by insiders that Apple was “aiming to bring something to market around 2028.”
Gurman also shared that it was more likely to be a large-screened iPad rather than a touchscreen MacBook, and that iPadOS should be ready to handle macOS apps by the time the new device arrives. What we’ve seen in iPadOS 26 certainly implies that Apple is getting ready for a next-generation device like this.
Nevertheless, even 2028 might turn out to be optimistic. This week, in the same report that shared news on the “iPhone Fold” prototyping stage, DigiTimes says that Apple had “decided to pause progress on [its] larger foldable device for the time being.”
The report claims that Apple is still facing challenges in achieving its standards for flexible display technology. Production expenses are also increasing, likely driven up by the complexity of the screens involved. Combine that with “a relatively modest consumer demand for larger foldable devices,” and it’s not hard to imagine how this might be bumped down on Apple’s list of priorities. After all, there’s little point in building an expensive device that few people want to buy unless you’re breaking new ground like Apple did with the Vision Pro. A folding laptop-tablet hybrid is hardly a revolutionary concept by comparison.
Of course, 2028 is still a ways off, which gives Apple time to restart the project and still meet that timeline, but it sounds like this is a shift from where things were in December, and it may be left on the shelf until Apple sees how things play out with the iPhone Fold, which is expected to arrive by 2027.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
