According to new rumors, Apple seems to be pulling together in the development of a foldable iPhone. The company apparently asked its Foxconn, its largest iPhone supplier, to create two prototype folding shells with exhibits.
As reported by Tom’s Guide on Sunday, what the Taiwanese website calls United Daily NewsApple’s two prototypes reflect two different approaches to foldable phones in the industry. Tom’s Guide says that one of the designs is similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, which reminds us, has a flexible screen with crease in the middle and can be folded. The others are closer to Microsoft’s Surface Duo, the exhaust notes, a device with two screens that look like a book and are held together by a hinge.
It’s not clear if Apple is working on two separate foldable phones and if it’s testing different ideas for the final new type of iPhone, according to Tom’s Guide.
Add this to a recent patent application published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office – which was published in April from last year – and you can not help but be extremely curious about what Apple is doing in this area. The application, entitled “Electronic devices with hinged folding”, describes a device that can be folded inwards and outwards.
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An electronic device has a foldable screen. The first and second parts of an electronic device housing for the device can be connected by means of a hinge. A flexible display can overlap the first housing section and the second housing section and can bend over a bending gas if the first and second housing sections are rotated against each other by means of the hinge, ”reads the summary.
However, this is not Apple’s first patent application related to foldable phones and probably will not be the last. It also has a patent application for a self-healing show as well as one that allows two screens to work seamlessly as one when they are close to each other.
Just because the company has filed patents and because the rumor mill is buzzing does not mean that any of the ideas or designs are a done deal. Some may never be made. While we believe that Apple will eventually make a foldable phone, it may end up being different from anything we speculated about when it finally came here. Yet it never hurts to imagine the possibilities.
[Tom’s Guide]