Apple’s engineers have toiled for years on a massive foldable iPad. A 20-inch display that unfolds into a portable workstation. But now, as John Ternus prepares to step into Tim Cook’s shoes as CEO on September 1, this ambitious hardware effort hangs in limbo. Mark Gurman laid it bare in his latest Bloomberg Power On newsletter: “The foldable iPad is a real thing being developed behind closed doors.” Yet. It may end up as an experimental prototype that won’t see release.
Ternus championed the project during his tenure as senior vice president of hardware engineering. He’s been with Apple for 25 years, overseeing iPad evolution from its 2010 debut into a productivity powerhouse. Sources describe him counting screw grooves at midnight, pushing for innovations like LiDAR only on Pro models to protect margins. The giant iPad fit his vision. A super-sized screen for creators. But practicality snags emerged. How do you type on it effectively? Prototypes weighed in at around 3.5 pounds—MacBook Pro territory—far heavier than the one-pound 13-inch iPad Pro, as noted in an earlier AppleInsider report citing Bloomberg.
History repeats. Back in July 2015, DigiTimes reported a pause on folding iPad work. By October that year, timelines slipped. Fast-forward to 2025: engineering hurdles with Samsung Display’s 18-inch panels pushed targets to 2029 or beyond, per AppleInsider. March 2026 brought more doubt. Gurman warned in another piece, covered by AppleInsider, that the device—then pegged at 18 inches—might never launch due to design woes.
And the latest from AppleInsider ties it all to Ternus’s promotion. As CEO, he’ll oversee the entire empire. Less bandwidth for niche hardware bets. The iPhone Fold takes priority. Expected this fall alongside iPhone 18 models, it promises a book-style design with a 7.8-inch inner screen and near-invisible crease from Samsung panels. Gurman positions it as Ternus’s first big statement product.
Contrast sharpens the picture. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series dominates foldables, shipping millions annually. Huawei’s MateBook Fold offers an 18-inch folding slate for $3,400—lighter than Apple’s prototypes. Apple demands perfection. Crease elimination treated as a materials puzzle, not just hinges. Cost? Likely $3,000-plus, triple the price of current flagships. Demand questions loom. iPad Pro sales lag post-OLED refresh, per industry chatter on X.
China Tech Watch highlighted Ternus’s role on X, noting his push for the 20-inch model amid CEO buzz. No mass production signals yet. Suppliers quiet. Omdia and Ross Young floated 2026-2027 windows for large foldables, but those now look optimistic—perhaps conflated with MacBook rumors.
Schrödinger’s slab. Exists in labs. Uncertain in reality. Ternus could kill it outright, redirect resources to iPhone Fold or smart glasses. Or salvage for a niche Ultra line. Apple’s patent on articulated hinges from 2020 gathers dust otherwise.
But here’s the rub. Foldables represent 1% of global smartphone sales, per Counterpoint Research—though tablets lag further. Apple moves 50-80 million iPhones quarterly; Ming-Chi Kuo eyes 3-5 million units for the Fold in year one. A giant iPad? Riskier. Creators crave big canvases, yet portability suffers unfolded.
Shift happens. Tim Cook’s era refined categories: slimmer iPhones, brighter iPads, AirPods everywhere. Vision Pro flopped. Project Titan scrapped after $10 billion. Ternus inherits a pipeline: tabletop robot, AI AirPods, touch Macs. Foldable iPhone leads. The jumbo iPad? Likely demoted to tech-demo status.
Engineers iterate. Panels shrink creases. Weights drop. But CEO calculus changes everything. Ternus balances innovation against profits. This folding behemoth tests that tightrope. Will it fold under pressure? Or unfold into glory?
Observers wait. Gurman’s March call—“the giant iPad may never get released”—echoes louder now. Apple’s silence speaks volumes.
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