Apple fans who have seen “The Wire” one too many times have long wished for a throwback flip phone with modern features.
That hope will soon become a reality.
On Tuesday, Apple was granted a patent for a display with touch sensors on a “foldable electronic device” by the United States Patent Office. According to the patent, the device will have input-output ports to connect with joysticks, scrolling wheels, touchpads, microphones, keyboards, and other accessories, and users will have multiple touchpoints on the device (not just the screen) to control things like the camera and headphone volume.
It’s all very exciting, but hold off on setting up camp outside the Apple Store just yet.
Yahoo! Finance said that FT International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the folding Apple phone would come out in 2025. UBS analyst David Vogt expressed similar sentiments, doubting that the phone would be released this year but remaining optimistic.
Vogt stated in a note to investors, “We believe that a foldable iPhone model could lead to an uptick in consumer purchasing and an upgrade rate within the smartphone segment.” An estimated 1.2 billion iPhones and 1.3 billion smartphones are shipped every year. “If a foldable device slows the rate at which people upgrade their iPhones or gets people to switch from the Android ecosystem, iPhone unit growth could be higher than our 238 million estimates in [fiscal 2024].”
According to The Motley Fool, 2023 was a fantastic year to be an Apple stockholder. According to Daniel Sparks, “shares have risen about 17%, easily surpassing the S&P 500’s 7% gain during this same period,” and “one analyst thinks the stock still has plenty of room to run.”
