The countdown for Apple's foldable device has begun, and Honor, vivo and other brands are seizing the window period.

Recently, Apple, which has repeatedly "missed the launch" of foldable phones, has new developments.

On July 15, Guo Mingji, an analyst at Tianfeng International Securities, posted a blog saying that Apple has decided not to adopt a self - developed solution for its foldable phone. Its first foldable iPhone will adopt the solution of Samsung Display and is planned to be mass - produced in the second half of 2026. Among them, for the hinge part, one of the core technologies of foldable phones, it will mainly be supplied by Fine M - Tec, a supplier with close cooperation with Samsung.

According to his previous post, Guo Mingji once clearly stated that the only confirmed core component of Apple's first foldable iPhone at that time was the foldable screen provided by Samsung Display.

It is understood that Samsung Display is a company under the Samsung Group focusing on the field of display technology and is also one of the world's leading display panel manufacturers. It is not difficult to see from Guo Mingji's post that Apple's abandonment of self - development in foldable screens and hinges may be to shorten the R & D time so as to launch the foldable iPhone before the originally scheduled release time and avoid further delays.

In fact, as the only mainstream global mobile phone manufacturer that has not yet launched a foldable phone, Apple's foldable phone has long attracted much market attention. As the rumored "mass - production in the second half of 2026" date of the foldable iPhone approaches, domestic mobile phone manufacturers that have been deeply involved in the foldable phone track have accelerated their pace of launching new products.

It is reported that from June 24 to July 2, within less than ten days, Xiaomi, vivo, and Honor successively launched new models of foldable phones. With the rise of domestic brands, Apple phones are showing a decline in the domestic market. Coupled with its slowness in AI and foldable phones, many people are worried about the future direction of Apple phones. However, it cannot be denied that in the global market, Apple's current leading advantage cannot be underestimated. According to IDC data, in 2024, Apple with an 18.7% share surpassed Samsung for the second consecutive year to rank first for the whole year.

For domestic mobile phone manufacturers including Xiaomi, vivo, and Honor, launching new products during the window period before the mass - production of the foldable iPhone is not only a necessary move to capture users' minds but also related to the competition for the right to speak in the high - end mobile phone market in the future.

01

Android Camp "Blocks" iOS

Xiaomi, vivo, and Honor's recent intensive launch of new foldable models can be regarded as a blocking move by the Android system camp against the iOS system.

By analyzing the three foldable models, Xiaomi MIX Flip2, vivo X Fold5, and Honor Magic V5, it can be found that the current publicity focuses of the three foldable phones still revolve around lightness, thinness, battery capacity, AI, etc.

Among them, in terms of thickness and weight parameters, Honor Magic V5 performs the best. Its folded thickness is only 8.8 mm, making it the world's thinnest foldable phone at present. The previous thinnest folded thickness was 8.93 mm of the OPPO Find N5 launched by OPPO in February this year. In terms of weight, the Honor Magic V5 weighs 217 grams. The folded thickness of the vivo X Fold5 is 9.2 mm, but it has the same weight as the Honor Magic V5, ranking first as the world's lightest large - foldable phone at present. Different from the above two large - foldable models, the Xiaomi MIX Flip2 is a small - foldable model, which is lighter in weight, but only the unfolded thickness (7.57 mm) is shown.

In terms of battery capacity, Honor Magic V5 still leads, using a 6100mAh Qinghai Lake blade battery; followed by the vivo X Fold5, which is equipped with a 6000mAh Blue Ocean battery. Xiaomi's small - foldable model this time is equipped with a 5165mAh Xiaomi Jinshajiang battery.

In addition to the display of hardware performance in terms of form and battery, the three models also have their own characteristics in terms of AI capabilities, imaging systems, etc. In addition, it is worth noting that all three models have shown their emphasis on breaking through Apple's ecological barriers. Among them, the Honor Magic V5 supports interconnection between devices of different systems and can also transfer data with Apple phones by tapping. The vivo X Fold5 claims to achieve a super - strong ecological breakthrough, being the first to support the connection of Apple Watch and also being compatible with AirPods. The Xiaomi MIX Flip2 also claims to be friendly to Apple users' ecosystem, including Mac desktop sharing, NFC proximity sharing, cloud photo album sharing, etc.

In fact, "converting Apple users" by domestic mobile phone manufacturers is no longer an isolated case. In addition to the above three brands, the foldable model Find N5 launched by OPPO in February also emphasized breaking through the Apple ecosystem. This also shows from another aspect that Apple phones and the Apple ecosystem have always been the benchmarks for domestic mobile phone manufacturers on their path to the high - end market. The underlying logic of continuing to emphasize breaking through the Apple ecological barrier in foldable models also lies in competing for Apple's high - value target users.

In terms of price, on July 21, according to Caijing.com Technology citing media reports, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reiterated in the latest issue of the Power On newsletter that the starting price is expected to be no less than $2000 (equivalent to about 14,359 yuan). According to market news, Apple's first foldable model is a large - foldable phone. In contrast, the lowest - configuration price of the Honor Magic V5 is 8999 yuan, and the highest - configuration price is 10,999 yuan; the lowest - configuration price of the vivo X Fold5 is 6999 yuan, and the highest - configuration price is 9499 yuan. If the market's prediction about Apple's foldable model is correct, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have an advantage in price.

In all aspects of the new foldable phone models of the three manufacturers, each has different differential advantages. Beyond the specific parameter data analysis, from the perspective of the future direction, for domestic mobile phone manufacturers that have long started to layout foldable phones, the entry of the foldable iPhone, a new player, presents both opportunities and challenges.

On the one hand, although leading mobile phone manufacturers have long launched and continuously updated and iterated foldable phones, taking foldable screens as an important anchor point for high - end layout, at present, foldable phones still belong to a relatively niche track.

According to data disclosed by IDC, in the first quarter of 2025, the domestic shipment volume of foldable phones was 2.84 million units, while the total domestic shipment volume of smartphones in the same period was 71.6 million units. Calculated by this, the shipment volume of foldable phones accounted for only 3.97%. That is to say, among every 100 smartphones sold, there were less than 4 foldable phones.

Apple's long - accumulated brand market appeal and high - end user base cannot be underestimated. With the launch of the foldable iPhone, it is very likely to greatly improve the overall market awareness and acceptance of foldable phones, quickly pushing foldable screens from the "niche trial" to the "mainstream high - end" market. An ideal result is that the entire foldable screen market scale will expand.

On the other hand, the launch of Apple's first foldable phone also marks that the foldable phone market has entered the full - scale competition stage of mainstream manufacturers, and the competition situation will undoubtedly become more intense. This requires existing mobile phone manufacturers to show more differential advantages. At this time, choosing to vigorously develop foldable phones and combine with AI technology is the competition strategy of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, using their existing advantages in foldable phones to attack Apple's relatively weak points.

02

What's the Competitiveness of the Foldable iPhone?

As an international mobile phone giant, Apple has long been leading in the high - end mobile phone market. For a long time before, only Samsung and Huawei, two leading enterprises, could compete closely with it in the international market.

However, in the domestic market, Apple phones have a different situation. An obvious fact is that with the rise of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, Apple's market share in the domestic market has been showing a decline in recent years.

Data from market research institution Counterpoint shows that from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2025, Apple's market share in the Chinese mobile phone market dropped from the original 21% to 15%. The reasons include the improvement of the brand power of domestic mobile phone brands such as Huawei and Xiaomi. In addition, Apple's slowness in the layout of AI and foldable phones has also led to some users being diverted by domestic mobile phone manufacturers through function iterations.

To reverse the decline in its market share in the Chinese market, accelerating the layout in the hot AI and foldable phone tracks is an inevitable choice for Apple. Among them, Apple highly launched Apple Intelligence at last year's WWDC, but many core AI functions, including the new Siri, have not been implemented in China for a long time, and the new Siri has been postponed again to 2026.

Based on this, accelerating the launch of foldable phones to meet the needs of Chinese consumers can also be regarded as one of the few choices for Apple to break through. As Mark Gurman of Bloomberg said: The main reason for Apple's decision to launch the iPhone Fold is that the Chinese market has a strong interest in such phones, and the company hopes to further expand the sales of its models in China through this.

According to relevant news, Apple previously insisted on self - development in foldable phones, but the self - developed solution undoubtedly faces pressure in terms of cost and time. Especially as Samsung and Huawei, the two major competitors, are developing rapidly in the iteration of foldable phones, the time left for Apple is not much. Now, abandoning the self - developed solution can be regarded as a roundabout way to save the situation without giving up the high - end foldable phone market.

However, temporarily abandoning self - development does not mean falling behind. Apple's choice of Samsung's affiliated companies in the foldable screen solution and core technologies (such as hinges), combined with Apple's own ecological advantages and Samsung's technical advantages in foldable screens, the brand appeal that the new phone may generate still cannot be underestimated. It is understood that many securities firms such as Xiangcai Securities and First Capital Securities are optimistic about the demand for Apple's foldable phones in their research reports.

In addition, Apple previously laid out and researched the hinge of the foldable iPhone to improve screen creases. However, due to the pre - emption of Samsung, Huawei, etc. in foldable phones, if Apple wants to self - develop hinge technology, it needs to break through challenges such as the existing technological limitations and patent barriers of other brands. This may be the reason why Apple chose to cooperate with Samsung. From another perspective, this move also reflects that Apple has higher requirements for screen creases, which also makes Apple fans have more expectations for the upcoming foldable Apple phone.

The current high - end mobile phone market has also entered the stage of stock competition. As a possible incremental area, foldable phones are to some extent a must - fight area for Apple to maintain its position in the high - end mobile phone market. In this regard, Apple has unique competitive advantages, which may also be the underlying logic for Honor, vivo, etc. to seize the window period before the launch of its new product.

03

The "Second Echelon" Urgently Needs to Break Through

For a long time, the competition among mainstream mobile phone manufacturers in foldable phones has mostly focused on hardware parameters.

The most obvious is the competition in the external form of phones. The competition for the title of "the world's thinnest and lightest foldable model" has been written in the publicity slogans of new foldable models of various manufacturers. In addition, the competition among various brands in terms of battery life, dust - proof, drop - proof, and anti - freezing capabilities also continues.

For example, in terms of anti - freezing ability, compared with straight - screen phones, foldable phones need higher anti - freezing ability due to their special screen form. In the northern winter, foldable phones need to withstand the low temperature of about - 15°C to - 20°C outdoors. At present, brands such as Samsung and OPPO claim that their foldable screens can withstand a low temperature of - 20°C. The recently launched vivo X Fold5 also stated on its publicity page that it supports use scenarios at - 20°C.

In addition, in terms of folding forms, since Samsung launched the world's first mass - produced foldable phone in 2019, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers have made different layouts in vertical small - foldable and horizontal large - foldable phones. With the continuous development of technology, leading enterprises in the track such as Huawei and Samsung have set their sights on the triple - foldable form.

In September 2024, Huawei launched the world's first triple - foldable phone, the Huawei Mate XT Master of Distinction. On July 11 this year, Roh Tae - moon, the head of Samsung's mobile business, confirmed during the New York new product launch event that the company plans to launch its first triple - foldable smartphone before the end of 2025. In addition, Huawei's foldable screen technology has been extended from smartphones to laptops, and it launched its first Hongmeng foldable laptop in May this year.