The "unless" argument is where apple has done well:

- mobile mp3 player sales are low unless disk and battery life are greatly improved

- large display touch screen phone market is small unless someone solves the "app problem"

- smart watch market is tiny if exists at all unless someone makes one that is useful and has improved battery life

Is this a thing? I've been using a Pixel 9 Pro Fold for one full year now and my inner screen looks pretty flawless. I don't see a single scratch, and I've never used any kind of protector on the inside. This kind of sounds like a "sour grapes" excuse where a really good thing is presumed to suck only because you can't have it. Personally, as someone who isn't really interested in a full tablet, the foldable is really really nice.

Or an actual seemless hinge. My god are they ugly down the bend.

It is a feature, not a bug.

For those that are not chronically online, a mobile phone from a decade ago has everything they need. If you only have to phone the family, WhatsApp your neighbours, get the map out, use a search engine and do your online banking, then a flagship phone is a bit over the top. If anything, the old phone is preferable since its loss would not be the end of the world.

I have seen a few elderly neighbours rocking Samsung Galaxy S7s with no need to upgrade. Although the S7 isn't quite a decade old, the apps that are actually used (WhatsApp, online banking) will be working with the S7 for many years to come since there is this demographic of active users.

Now, what if we could get these people to upgrade every three years with a feature that the 'elderly neighbour' would want? Eyesight isn't what it used to be in old age, so how about a nice big screen?

You can't deliberately hobble the phone with poor battery life or programme it to go slow in an update because we know that isn't going to win the customer over, but a screen that gets tatty after three years? Sounds good to me.

my girlfriend broke her iphone screen twice in two weeks, the second time we didn't bother repairing the screen and now she has a broken screen which looks really ugly. I've dropped my google pixel fold 9 countless time and the screen is still intact and flawless. So not sure what you're talking about.

I prefer a smaller phone, something that fits in your pocket easily with glasses, and am still rocking an iPhone Mini 13.

Folding phones are a niche because they are very expensive to be honest.

> It’s not a big enough slice for them to want to chase.

Typical strat for them is not to be first with an innovation, but to wait and work out the kinks enough that they can convince people that the tradeoffs are well worth making. Apple wouldn't be chasing that existing slice, they'd be trying to entice a larger share of their customers to upgrade faster.

Folding phones are also double the price. If the price comes down I would expect them to dominate the market.

Yes, in some way everybody is in the 1.5% of something. Apple users will therefore never be 100% happy. Apple is a compromise. But they're also opinionated and very good at telling their users what they should like.

Folding phones are extremely popular in China, where nobody cares about Apple anymore. They are now seen as a status symbol because they are significantly more expensive.

I basically stopped using my ipad pro since I bought the pixel folding pro

Apple watch is like the definition of dorky looking - so much for that theory.

Also flip phones aren't dorky and have a 2000s vibe - but they don't fit Apple "you can have any color as long as it's black" approach to design.

In some ways I can't even fault them - fragmenting your device shapes/experiences to chase a niche look is not good business. But this is exactly what's pushing me out of Apple ecosystem - it's so locked down that if you don't want to fit into their narrow product lines you have no other options. There are no third party watch makers using apple watch hardware and software. No other phone makers with access to iPhone internals and iOS. Nobody can hack a PC OS onto an iPad or build a 2in1 MacOS device.

I feel like this is the last gen of Apple tech I'm in on - I just find there are so many devices that are compelling to me personally but don't fit into the walled garden. Plus Google seems light-year ahead on delivering a smart assistant.

Watch the leaks over the next year or so. There have been rumours of a foldable coming as soon as next year.

I remember thinking that the first iPad was dorky, oh boy did I misread the market.

Oh and I remember everyone mocking the airpods pro when they came out. Now everyone is wearing them.

For phones what really matters for most people is... the screen size. And a folding phone is basically the best thing you can get right now for that.

The only problem is pricing at the moment.

Im never going back to non-foldable. The ability to have a full sized phone take up half as much space in my pocket is amazing. Consistently more comfortable moving around.

Until you use one

We're already in the trifold era. Check this video to see some useful features https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp5i0jQggK4

iPads seem gimmicky to me. Somehow, they sell...

Someone else commented that the reason the iPhone Air is so thin is the result of Apple building a folding phone (they have to be thin). I agree. The iPhone Air basically looked like a low hanging fruit while they're still at it. Apple is known to take its time so that makes sense

I've had the past three generations of Samsung folding phone (4,5,6).

My use-case is for travel, where I want to read books, and the very occasional time when I want to do some design work outside the office -- draw a diagram that sort of thing. A third rare use case is where a web site is buggy or limited in functionality for mobile browsers. In all these cases the unfolded screen allows me to do the thing I need to do without carrying a second device (tablet, eReader). Another marginal use-case is to show another person a photograph. The fold out screen is much easier to see and I think has better color rendition too.

For these use-cases I find the folding phone very worthwhile.

But...the benefit that trumps all that is that the phone itself is smaller (narrower) than the typical flagship phones these days. It fits in my pocket and my hand reaches across it. I'd never go back to a non-folding phone for this reason alone, even if I never unfolded it. In fact I almost never do unfold it, except when traveling.

fwiw it wasn't until the Fold6 that the "cover screen" typing experience was ok. I understand that the Fold7 is a bit wider and so probably better, but I can't justify the expense to upgrade so will sit out until the Fold8.

Tried the Fold on a Google event and it was really nice. I would get one, but I don't want to spend so much money.

The Z Fold 7 I tried works so well, I tempted to move away from Apple for the first time since my Galaxy Note 3.

they do work well but are fragile. I broke one by gently closing it on a hot day (about 100F). Saw another break from the kind of short fall that used to break phones before they all got gorilla glass.

I guess if you're the sort that is not clumsy and you're in a mild climate you might get your money's worth

for reference these were Samsung Z Flip devices

The vertical fold ones might be better. I had the newest Samsung Flip (horizontal folding) and the screen died twice. Both times from a small rupture on the seam. The tech at the phone place said it happens constantly, and it costs hundreds of dollars to replace out of warranty.

The google folding pro works really well

honestly most criticism I see on folding phone could basically be solved by just trying one, it's so useful when you need a larger screen

The crease is something you barely even notice 5 minutes into using one.

I would never have bought one before but nowadays it could actually be useful. You could have Codex or Claude Code in your pocket, and every ~15min check the work and write a new prompt. Tablets are too big (for me) to constantly carry around for this, and phones annoyingly small for that use.

because we want larger screens