Rumor: Apple perhaps plans a new folding Mac/iPad hybrid

At CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Intel previewed a foldable OLED display form factor, code-named “Horseshoe Bend.

Apple may be planning a new kind of foldable product somewhere between a MacBook and an iPad, but it’s going to take time to perfect and may never happen at all.

Is it a Mac, is it an iPad?

We know Apple has spent time considering foldable displays. I’m certain its product designers began looking at the concept way back when ePaper was a discussion back in the late nineties. I imagine the company looks at everything.

Flash forward to today and Apple’s purported plan suggests it wants to deliver a more high-quality experience than you get from the foldable devices that exist right now. It is allegedly working with LG Display to develop solutions built around a new foldable OLED technology made using ultra-thin glass.

This may be a little like something LG is working with HP on, the Elec hints, suggesting part of the reason to use this material is because you end up with something that lasts longer and can be folded and unfolded more often before the product fails. LG may also begin manufacturing a folding 17-inch glass panel for HP this year.

All the same, expectation of a foldable iPhone seems set to be unmet for some time yet, according to ever-present Apple analyst, Ming Chi Kuo. That won’t happen until 2025, apparently.

I expected Apple to launch a foldable iPhone as soon as 2024 in my reports last year, but now it's clear this prediction needs to be revised. I predict Apple may launch its first foldable product in 2025 at the earliest, which may be a foldable iPad or a hybrid of iPad & iPhone. https://t.co/HGIDPFvdar

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) April 1, 2022

What might this be?

There is a chance Apple may manage to make a 20-inch foldable MacBook to appear first.

Now, we say MacBook, but might this be a combination device, an iPad in one configuration, a Mac in another? Apple has filed frequent patents for virtual keyboards on displays, after all.

Alternatively, the device could function as a monitor and a Mac, Display Supply Chain Consultants analyst Ross Young has previously said. Who wouldn’t want a foldable iMac in their pocket?

Back in the now all we can really think is that Apple may be working with LG to perfect a technology for use in some form of foldable device. The company sees that device as a Mac/iPad equivalent of some kind, rather than a smartphone and we won’t see too much on these plans for some time yet.

It is, of course, another of the benefits of the Apple M-series chips, in that the ability to generate so much computational performance for such low wattage means you can squeeze the chips into a wide array of devices and designs.

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