Apple is about to do something it almost never does: follow.
For years, Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola have shipped foldable phones while Apple watched from the sidelines, refining, testing, and — if you believe the supply chain chatter — quietly solving the engineering problems that plagued early folding devices. Now, according to multiple reports, Apple’s first foldable iPhone could arrive as soon as September 2025, debuting alongside the iPhone 17 lineup at Apple’s annual fall event.
That timeline, once considered optimistic even by bullish analysts, has gained significant credibility in recent weeks. And if it holds, it would mark Apple’s most ambitious hardware launch since the original iPhone in 2007 — a device entering a product category that competitors have owned for half a decade.
The clearest signal came from display industry analyst Ross Young, who told Digital Trends that the foldable iPhone’s display panels are expected to enter mass production in the May-to-June window of 2025. That production schedule aligns precisely with a September announcement. Young, who heads Display Supply Chain Consultants and has a strong track record on Apple display forecasts, had previously suggested the device might slip to 2026. His revised assessment carries weight. “We now expect iPhone Fold display panels to be mass produced in the May/June time frame,” Young stated, adding that this makes a September debut “possible.”
The device is expected to take a book-style form factor — think Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series rather than the clamshell design of the Galaxy Z Flip. But Apple, characteristically, appears to be pushing the physical design further than anyone else has managed. Reports from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and The Information suggest the device will be remarkably thin when unfolded, potentially rivaling or beating the thickness of the current iPhone 17 Air, which itself is shaping up to be Apple’s thinnest phone ever.
A nearly invisible crease. That’s been the holy grail of foldable phone design, and every manufacturer that’s shipped one has fallen short. Samsung’s Z Fold 6 still shows a visible line down the center of its inner display. So does Google’s Pixel Fold. Apple reportedly considers this unacceptable. According to reporting from Digital Trends, Apple has been working intensively on display technology and hinge mechanisms to minimize the crease to the point where it’s essentially undetectable during normal use. Whether they’ve actually achieved this remains to be seen, but the ambition tells you everything about how Apple views this product — not as an experiment, but as a flagship.
The internal display is expected to measure around 7.6 to 8 inches when fully opened, which would put it in direct competition with Samsung’s largest foldables and approach small tablet territory. The cover screen — the external display you’d use when the phone is closed — is reportedly around 6.2 inches, roughly the size of a standard smartphone. Both screens are expected to feature Apple’s ProMotion technology with 120Hz refresh rates.
Here’s where it gets expensive. Pricing estimates have consistently pointed to a range above $1,799, with some analysts suggesting it could approach or exceed $2,000. That would make it the most expensive iPhone ever sold at launch, surpassing even the highest-tier iPhone 17 Pro Max configurations. Apple apparently views this not as a replacement for existing models but as a new ultra-premium tier sitting above the Pro Max line.
The supply chain picture has been coming into focus for months. Samsung Display and LG Display are both reportedly supplying OLED panels for the foldable, a dual-sourcing strategy Apple frequently employs to manage risk and maintain negotiating leverage with suppliers. The hinge mechanism — arguably the most critical mechanical component in any foldable — has reportedly gone through extensive testing and multiple design iterations. Apple filed numerous patents related to foldable hinge designs over the past several years, covering everything from gear-based systems to multi-link mechanisms designed to distribute stress evenly across the fold point.
But hardware is only half the story.
iOS will need to adapt. Apple’s software has never had to account for a screen that changes size and aspect ratio in real time. iPadOS handles larger displays, and iPhone apps handle smaller ones, but a foldable device that transitions between the two presents a fundamentally different interaction model. Developers would need new APIs. Multitasking would need rethinking. The entire interface paradigm — how apps resize, how split-screen works, how the transition from folded to unfolded feels — will define whether this device succeeds or becomes an expensive curiosity.
Apple has reportedly been working on foldable-specific software features for at least two years. Some of these may surface in iOS 19, which is expected to be announced at WWDC in June 2025. If Apple does preview foldable-related software capabilities at WWDC, it would all but confirm the September hardware launch and give developers a summer to prepare their apps.
The competitive context matters enormously. Samsung launched its first Galaxy Fold in 2019 — six years ago. Since then, it has shipped six generations of book-style foldables and an equal number of flip-style devices. Huawei’s Mate X series has pushed the boundaries of thinness in foldable design, particularly with the Mate XT, which folds twice to create a triple-screen tablet. Google entered the foldable market with the Pixel Fold in 2023 and followed up with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold in 2024. OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Honor have all shipped foldables in various markets.
Apple is late. Undeniably, conspicuously late.
And yet lateness has historically been Apple’s strategy, not its weakness. The company didn’t make the first smartphone, the first tablet, the first smartwatch, or the first pair of wireless earbuds. In every case, it entered after competitors had educated the market and exposed the pain points, then delivered a product that set a new standard for the category. The question is whether that playbook still works in 2025, when foldable phones — while still niche — have matured considerably.
Market data suggests foldables remain a small but growing segment. According to IDC, foldable phone shipments reached approximately 16.8 million units globally in 2024, representing roughly 1.4% of total smartphone shipments. That’s not nothing, but it’s far from mainstream. The primary barriers to adoption have been price, durability concerns, and the crease issue. If Apple can credibly address all three — and its brand power alone may neutralize durability concerns for many buyers — it could accelerate foldable adoption more than any single product launch in the category’s history.
There’s another angle that hasn’t received enough attention: what a foldable iPhone means for Apple Intelligence. Apple’s AI features, branded under the Apple Intelligence umbrella, launched with the iPhone 16 series and are expected to expand significantly with the iPhone 17 lineup and iOS 19. A foldable device with a large inner display would be an ideal showcase for AI-powered multitasking features, enhanced Siri interactions that benefit from more screen real estate, and productivity tools that blur the line between phone and tablet. Apple could position the foldable iPhone as the ultimate Apple Intelligence device — a phone that literally opens up to give AI more room to work.
The timing also intersects with Apple’s broader product strategy in interesting ways. The iPhone 17 Air, expected to debut alongside the standard iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, represents Apple’s push toward ultra-thin design. The foldable, paradoxically, pushes in the same direction — achieving thinness not by removing components but by redistributing them across a larger, folding chassis. Both products signal that Apple sees physical design innovation, not just chip performance, as a key differentiator going forward.
Not everyone is convinced September will be the date. Ming-Chi Kuo, the well-known Apple supply chain analyst, has at various points suggested the foldable could arrive later, potentially in early 2026. Production yields on foldable displays remain a challenge across the industry, and any manufacturing hiccup could push the timeline. Apple also has an extraordinarily low tolerance for quality issues at launch — the company would rather delay a product than ship one that doesn’t meet its standards. The original AirPods, Apple Watch, and HomePod all experienced production-related delays.
So the September 2025 date should be understood as a target, not a certainty. But the convergence of supply chain evidence, analyst reporting, and Apple’s own patent activity makes it the most likely window. And Ross Young’s updated timeline, based on actual display panel production schedules rather than speculation, is the strongest data point yet.
What would a September launch look like in practice? Apple typically holds its iPhone event in the first or second week of September, with preorders opening shortly after and devices shipping by the end of the month. A foldable iPhone would almost certainly be the “one more thing” moment — the climactic reveal after the standard iPhone 17 models have been presented. Apple hasn’t had a true surprise hardware reveal at a fall event in years. This would be one.
The stakes are real. Apple’s iPhone revenue, while still enormous, has faced pressure as upgrade cycles lengthen and the smartphone market matures. A foldable iPhone at the $2,000 price point wouldn’t need to sell in massive volumes to meaningfully impact Apple’s average selling price and margins. Even if it captures just 5-10% of iPhone sales, it could add billions in revenue and reinforce Apple’s positioning at the top of the premium market.
Samsung, for its part, isn’t standing still. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is expected later in 2025, and Samsung has been rumored to be working on thinner designs and improved crease reduction of its own. The head-to-head comparison between Apple’s first foldable and Samsung’s seventh generation will be one of the most closely watched product matchups in years.
There’s also the question of carrier and retail strategy. Foldable phones have historically been a tough sell in carrier stores, where sales staff often default to recommending familiar form factors. Apple’s retail stores, with their controlled environment and trained staff, could be a significant advantage here. The ability to let customers physically handle the device, fold and unfold it, and experience the crease (or lack thereof) firsthand may matter more for this product than for any iPhone since the original.
Apple hasn’t commented publicly on any foldable iPhone plans. The company rarely acknowledges unannounced products, and there’s no reason to expect that to change. But the silence itself is telling — Apple hasn’t denied the reports either, and the volume of credible supply chain intelligence pointing toward a 2025 launch has reached a level that’s difficult to dismiss.
The foldable iPhone represents something rare for Apple: a genuine risk. The company is entering a category where competitors have years of iteration behind them, where consumer expectations have been shaped by other manufacturers’ products, and where the engineering challenges — durability, crease visibility, battery life in a thin folding chassis — are formidable. But it’s also a category where no one has yet delivered a product that feels truly finished. Every foldable on the market today involves compromises that are obvious to anyone who uses one for more than a few minutes.
If Apple has solved those compromises — or even most of them — September 2025 could be the most consequential iPhone launch in a decade. And if it hasn’t? Well, that’s why they might push it to 2026. Apple would rather be later than wrong.
Either way, the foldable era of iPhone is no longer a question of if. It’s a question of when — and increasingly, the answer looks like this fall.
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