Apple Patented Its Foldable Phone Technology, Will There Be A Foldable iPhone?

We already know that Samsung is working on its own foldable smartphone and is so close to the official launch in early 2019. The company has revealed the phone a few times to the public, it even showed a prototype at its Developer Conference back in November, on a dark stage though.

Samsung's alleged foldable phone

As exciting as foldable phones may sound, there still remains a question regarding how it is folded and unfolded. Is foldable phones really a thing with actual useful features, or will it be just something for phone makers to brag about? Is there a future for this kind of device?

In the meantime, however, phone brands are still racing to make the most impressive foldable handset device they can. Not only Samsung but also Huawei is on their work to make this concept come true.

And turns out, Apple is not standing out of this game.

Patently Apple revealed that the iPhone maker filed a patent in March 2018, which USPTO publicly posted on Thursday. As shown in the patent, the company is drafting various ways to produce a foldable iPhone.

Accordingly, Apple is likely to use an OLED panel, which it has gradually been switching to from the previous LCD display featuring on last year’s iPhone X. For the screen to withstand many bends, Apple has come up with a coating, which is a combination of a polymer and pigment flakes. This coating can be applied on the OLED screen by dipping, spraying or printing, which will protect the surface from cracking and wearing when twisted and turned.

However, what really excites here is that the patent hints a device that can be folded both ways, in and out. Right now, Samsung’s foldable phone cannot be folded in two ways, forth and back, it only allows folding inwards. This is because the giant Korean phone maker could not produce a stretchable screen that can survive outward folding.

There’s no telling when or even if we will see this technology in real life. It’s worth remembering that a patent suggests the company is looking into a specific area, but it does not necessarily mean it’s going to implement the technology into production.