iPhone folding screen from Samsung

Some time ago, Samsung and Huawei released their first folding screen phones Galaxy Fold and Mate X respectively. Therefore, folding screen mobile phones have become a hot topic in the technology industry. At the same time, many users expect Apple to launch a folding screen iPhone product.

Although Apple has almost no possibility of launching a folding screen phone, from the latest news, the folding screen phone is already in Apple’s product plan.

According to South Korean media ETNew, Samsung is negotiating with Apple on the folding screen mobile phone, and has provided Apple with a foldable screen sample.

The report pointed out that Samsung has provided a foldable screen for Apple, hoping to become the main supplier of Apple’s folding screen mobile phone. The size of this screen is 7.2 inches, which is less than 7.3 inches of Galaxy Fold and 8 inches of Mate X.

Some industry analysts said that Samsung may retain its display technology for folding screen phones to ensure its leading position and competitiveness in the folding screen industry.

But the latest news from ETNew suggests that this may not be the case. Samsung is not only a mobile phone manufacturer, but also the world’s largest OLED screen supplier, and naturally hopes to continue to maintain this advantage in folding screens.

At present, the OLED screens of the iPhone X and iPhone XS series are provided by Samsung. Apple is currently developing Micro OLED display technology independently, and is also working with LG on OLED screen development, but at least in 1-2 years, Samsung is in the OLED screen. There is still a certain technological lead.

In addition, the report also pointed out that the current annual production capacity of Samsung foldable screen is only 2.4 million units, which is very limited, but in order to provide more foldable screens, Samsung has planned to increase the production capacity to 10 million units.

As for the folding screen iPhone launch time, outsiders speculated that at least until 2020, Apple will release its first folding screen iPhone, because Apple believes that the folding screen technology is still immature, needs further improvement, and the product cost is too high.

However, from the perspective of exposed technology patents, Apple is already preparing for the launch of the folding screen iPhone.

Last year, Apple passed a patent on the folding screen hinge design. The patent document shows that Apple’s flexible hinge can be bent freely along the axis, and the screen can be seamlessly switched between the flat position and the folded position. It is worth mentioning that Apple’s folding screen phone can be bent inside and outside.

The document also mentions the support structure between the flexible screen and the device housing, which will consist of metal, polymer or shape memory materials.

In addition, Apple just passed a product technology patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office last Thursday, also from folding equipment.

In order to avoid possible folding system failures in low temperature environments, Apple added heating technology to the curved areas of the screen and added a magnetic latch system to prevent the device from folding or opening under too low temperature conditions. To avoid damage to the screen.

Of course, there is still a distance between the technology patent and the final application in the product, but this provides technical support for Apple’s introduction of folding screen equipment, and also indicates that Apple is already paying attention to this new technology.

In addition, from the application point of view, the application quality and richness of the iOS platform are very mature on the iPhone and iPad, and already have the soft power to launch a similar two-in-one device for mobile phones.