I genuinely think book reading is the killer app for foldable devices. A bigger screen for a movie or TV is nice to have, but not a game changer. When you have that much screen real estate you can get a really enjoyable experience reading a novel or just easily read a textbook or research paper in a way that's simply not possible on even the largest of what you might consider a typical size phone.

Plus, you no longer need to deal with buying and maintaining a separate device like an iPad! This is why I suspect Apple is dragging its feet on the foldable category, besides letting the screen technology mature. It will probably cannibalize some sales from that market segment.

What about book reading requires a large screen?

I find my phone much more comfortable to hold than a book. It fits my hand.

You only read one sentence at a time anyway. I rather scroll, keeping the current sentence in the middle of the screen than jump around with my eyes in an open book, and having to turn pages, or keeping them flat.

Am I missing something? (Real question. I read a lot!)

Too bad that when it comes to reading for pleasure, "all signs show a slump"...

https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-...

Though I agree with you that a larger reading screen would be very nice, I doubt such an experience on a device that offers endless digital distractions will reverse this downward trend - not that you said it would.

Kindles and their competitors have pretty much perfected the devices for this market. They are cheap, high quality, and last long. The few people who like to read do not mind carrying a dedicated reader. However a foldable eink reader would be interesting.

It could go both ways though. Phones get more heavy use, and foldables will probably always be more fragile than iPads, so they might wind up with more customers replacing a more expensive device more often. iPads last a really long time, which was talked about as a problem for Apple's revenue. Some day we might even get a foldable iPad.

Also I doubt that Apple's foldable phone will cost the same or less than Samsung's, as is suggested in the article...

> Plus, you no longer need to deal with buying and maintaining a separate device like an iPad!

I've found a much easier solution to this problem.

I actually use a single screen to read epubs using my folding phone, mostly use two screens for PDFs, mangas, and videos.

Exactly. Apple is adding so much to iPadOS 26 (e.g. new windowing features) that it resembles the Mac. The next foldable iPhone will be like the iPadOS prior to version 26, so that Apple can make sure iPadOS remains more powerful than iOS.

I agree with your first paragraph.

For your second, I think you don’t understand why people buy/use iPads. First off, I don’t really know anyone who uses an iPad mini for anything productive (other than as a test device). A 7-9” screen is just not useful compared to a 13” iPad for things like Sidecar or reading sheet music in live performances. The 7-9” screen being an unfolded phone doesn’t change this.

A folding iPhone could eat the iPad mini, but that’s never been a cash cow for Apple or something power users cared about - it’s more of an “iPod touch” for kids. (And frankly, the Switch 2 kind of obsoletes it.) The thing that would eat 13” iPads’ lunch is something more like Apple Vision.