There have been a lot of rumors lately that Apple is building a foldable iPhone, specifically a clamshell phone. Logically, this would seem to follow in the footsteps of brands like Huawei, Samsung and Motorola that are focusing on foldable devices, which makes sense. But is Apple really producing a foldable iPhone or phone? Here’s all we know and the details…

Is the foldable iPhone a dream or a model we’ll see in a few years?

Let’s start with the certainties and Apple traditions. The brand likes to continue on its way with a small number of models since the Steve Jobs era. We can say that this situation has become a tradition. So much so that the brand launches only 1 model family every year, and when compared to the fact that its competitors are launching countless models at that time, we expect a foldable iPhone model to be the main device of any series.

So to summarize, it is more likely to be the product of a single series rather than separate series such as Samsung S and Samsun Z Flip. But this is not an easy situation for Apple. Making users dependent on a single design may cause customer loss. For this reason, we can see disobedience to traditions. Now that we’re past the tradition part, we can get to the concrete evidence.

First of all, Apple is a company that applies for numerous patents every year. Earlier this year, they received a patent representing a foldable screen or the panel of that screen. There is also a patent obtained in 2016. At that time, when we were just starting to see foldable screen technologies in the market, Apple almost applied for a patent describing a foldable iPhone model.

So in fact, the subject has been discussed on Apple desks for more than 7 years. In addition to these, Apple owns a patent that eliminates problems such as “screen cracking, folding marks”, one of the most negative features of the Samsung Z series. According to the patent, the top layer of the foldable screens produced by Apple will be slightly thicker than necessary and will fill the places where the fold mark is formed and prevent the ugly appearance.

But there is an important point here. And this point actually takes us to the “Apple traditions” mentioned at the beginning of the article. Allegedly, Apple will first show the foldable screen to its customers in the iPad series before providing the order in the iPhone series. So we will see the first foldable Apple devices thanks to iPads.