Kuo: Apple Just Increased Its Folding Iphone Plans For 2026 - Will Triple Samsung's Fold 7

Apple's iPhone 16 Pro Max adjacent to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7.

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The reliable proviso concatenation newsman Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple conscionable boosted its folding iPhone plans.
• Apple will reportedly boost 2026 manufacturing to 8-10 cardinal and 2027 to 20-25 million.
• That is acold beyond nan 2.4 cardinal units Samsung plans to waste for its caller Fold 7 device.

Supply concatenation expert Ming-Chi Kuo issued a caller report connected Tuesday that Apple conscionable issued a 20% boost successful nan number of foldable iPhones it plans to manufacture successful 2026 and a 40% boost successful nan number it will make for 2027.

Apple has agelong been expected to motorboat a foldable iPhone since nan institution holds complete 30 patents successful folding phones.

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Kuo's report stated, "Apple precocious revised its shipment forecasts for nan foldable iPhone upward to 8-10 cardinal units successful 2026 and 20-25 cardinal successful 2027 (vs. erstwhile estimate of 6-8 cardinal and 10-15 million, respectively)." 

In different words, Apple conscionable sewage a batch much bullish astir nan number of folding iPhones it expects to waste successful nan coming years. Apple would apt not denote its folding iPhone until its autumn 2026 iPhone event, a twelvemonth from now.

By comparison, Samsung is readying to vessel 2.4 cardinal of its Samsung Fold 7 telephone (a 9% summation complete past year's model), according to Korean source, The Elec. The Fold 7 is nan exemplary that is perchance nan astir for illustration nan 1 Apple is reportedly preparing to motorboat -- an 8-inch foldable telephone pinch a screen surface that is adjacent to nan size of a modular smartphone. 

If Apple is readying to more-than-triple nan number of units of nan Fold 7 that Samsung is readying to sell, past that would bespeak that nan institution has tremendous assurance successful nan prototypes it's presently making up of a motorboat successful 2026. After all, Samsung has been refining nan foldable telephone conception for years. And recently, Chinese manufacturers person besides been producing cutting separator foldables specified arsenic nan Honor Magic V5 and nan Oppo Find N5.

Samsung's Fold 7 connected apical of nan iPhone 16 Pro Max and nan Galaxy S24 Ultra.

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I precocious started testing nan Samsung Fold 7 and I'm not amazed that Apple is getting bullish. I've ne'er loved folding phones, but nan Fold 7 is quickly becoming 1 of my favourite phones I've ever tested. It's now astir nan aforesaid size arsenic nan iPhone 16 Pro Max erstwhile folded, truthful it looks and feels for illustration utilizing a normal phone. 

But erstwhile you unfold it, it becomes much for illustration utilizing an iPad Mini, isolated from that nan fold itself and nan camera configuration springiness you a batch much options for doing things you could ne'er do connected a regular tablet -- specified arsenic utilizing it for illustration a mini laptop, taking a selfie pinch nan backmost cameras while previewing pinch nan screen screen, and moreover utilizing nan screen surface for illustration a teleprompter while taking a video pinch nan backmost cameras. There are a batch much Fold 7 tricks I'll mention successful an upcoming ZDNET article, but nan bottommost statement is that it gives america a preview of each nan caller capabilities Apple could bring to nan iPhone by launching a folding version.

ZDNET reached retired to Apple for remark and will update this article arsenic we study more.