The final twist: iPhone foldable screen launch delayed

The foldable phone is the only highlight of Apple's new phone series this year, and it has to be launched. OPPO and other brands have snatched the only selling point of Apple's foldable phones, and the iPhone foldable phone is facing a dilemma of being useless.

A week ago, when someone mentioned that it was inappropriate for Liu Zuohu to compare with Samsung to demonstrate the crease control of OPPO's new foldable phone series during its release.

Duan Yongping expressed his agreement and said that he would convey this opinion to his colleagues at OPPO.

But who should Liu Zuohu compare with? Certainly not OPPO's own previous - generation products, as all of them have obvious creases, including OPPO's own.

The performance of vivo's foldable phones is very similar to that of OPPO's. They have successfully made foldable phones lighter, cheaper, and with fewer creases, but not completely without them. Comparing with vivo is equivalent to comparing with OPPO itself.

Huawei, the earliest promoter of foldable phone products, is currently the only company that has made huge profits from foldable phones, but the real performance of its products is controversial. However, it is believed that no one wants to start a verbal dispute with this company.

Apple's once - strong advantage in the design and industrial chain is facing challenges.

Moreover, in the next few months, both vivo and Huawei will make progress in eliminating creases. The mysterious "primordial power" is not exclusive to OPPO.

Samsung, which has a relatively low presence in the Chinese market, is almost the only option.

But actually, the phone that Liu Zuohu most wants to, or secretly compares with and points to, is not Samsung, but Apple.

Apple originally planned to release its first foldable phone in the third quarter. One of the biggest highlights of this expensive new iPhone is crease control. There are no existing creases.

Why can Liu Zuohu steal the lines that originally belonged to Tim Cook?

"Intelligent Things" mentioned that there are several secrets to the crease - free iPhone foldable phone, including Corning's UTG glass, a mysterious glue from a Japanese company, and Apple's latest hinge design.

Before and after OPPO released its new version of the foldable phone, it attributed the rapid progress in its crease control to several factors: glass, bandage glue, and hinge design.

This is basically the same as the direction Apple is working on.

Since the first - generation iPhone, Corning has been Apple's closest partner. It once helped Steve Jobs and Jony Ive solve the scratch problem of the first iPhone. Now, it is also a typical representative of Tim Cook and Apple's "Made in the USA" strategy. In the past decade, it has been working hard with Apple to solve the crease problem of foldable phones.

Corning will not easily give away the secret recipe for Apple's crease control. The mysterious repairable glue solution from Toray in Japan is under patent protection with Apple and cannot be provided to major Android manufacturers.

Apple's product supply chain management overestimated its own technology and management capabilities. This was originally the strongest part of Apple in the Tim Cook era. When Apple unexpectedly changed the common design scheme of major Android manufacturers and forced certain links to act according to its own ideas.

The counterattack from the supply chain was also unexpected. They shared their ideas with other major manufacturers. Apple unexpectedly found that its own ideas and routes were not feasible.

The biggest highlights of Apple's foldable phone are crease control and the integration of the phone and PC ecosystems, which users can only notice after using it. Now, OPPO has preemptively released a crease - free foldable phone, and vivo and Huawei can also release foldable phones with even fewer creases at any time if they want.

Apple is starting to face a dilemma. It needs to copy the scheme that OPPO has already released to modify its own design. Then, it will release the phone at a price two or three times more expensive than the OPPO Find.

Before Apple, the global foldable phone ecosystem has been evolving so rapidly that the pace of technological and process improvements has exceeded the capabilities of Apple alone. This is a situation that Apple has never faced before, which has undermined Apple's once - proud advantages in product and design ecosystems.

Apple needs time to deal with this situation. Two months ago, there were rumors in the industrial chain that Apple would abandon the release of the foldable phone. The problem is that in 2026, the biggest highlights of Apple's phone product series are the foldable phone and a zoomable lens that Huawei once released, which will be applied to the new version of the iPhone flagship.

Using a different scheme from other manufacturers has many benefits besides technological and product performance. This approach can introduce new participants in the industrial chain to balance existing industrial chain enterprises and ensure that Apple enjoys substantial hardware profits alone.

There are many benefits to doing this, taking into account both public and private interests. The new book about Apple reveals some of these secrets.

Unlike Steve Jobs, Tim Cook sells what can be sold the most, not what is the best. The foldable phone will definitely be released, but the plan to launch it in 2026 will face challenges.

Unless Apple simply accepts the technical solutions from the supply chain instead of insisting on its own ideas. Then, it should change its attitude and seriously participate in the technological competition in the foldable phone ecosystem. Apple is no longer what it used to be.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Intelligent Things Technology Review” (ID: IntellegentThings), author: Wen/Intelligent Things. Republished by 36Kr with permission.