Apple’s first foldable iPhone is almost certainly landing this year – but it might not be the only folding design Apple has in mind.
In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple is also exploring a second model dubbed the iPhone Flip. Unlike the upcoming Fold, which opens out into a large tablet-style display, this would be a clamshell phone that folds shut into a compact square, then flips open to roughly the size of a normal iPhone.
The distinction is important. The Fold is essentially two screens joined together, aimed squarely at users who want the biggest possible display. The Flip would be about portability instead – taking up far less space in a pocket while still offering a full-size screen when opened.
The thinking seems to be that once Apple has cracked the hard part – a folding display that doesn’t suffer from an obvious crease – it may as well reuse that technology across multiple form factors. If the first foldable iPhone proves popular, Apple could then offer different shapes and sizes, much as it does with today’s regular lineup.
There’s also a quiet appeal here for fans of smaller phones. While an iPhone Flip almost certainly wouldn’t be priced like the old SE models, it could bring back some of that compact-phone charm in a much more modern way.
This idea is still very early, with no hint of a release window, and Apple’s immediate focus remains on getting its first foldable iPhone right. Still, it’s an intriguing sign that folding might not be a one-off experiment.