How Apple is looking at a foldable display iPhone to win back the market
Off-late, smartphone maker Apple has been in the news for the reported poor market performance of the iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr. The three phones came with a lot riding on their backs but eventually failed to bring in the kind of numbers the company had hoped for.
In fact, the situation got so bad that Apple recently had to fight poor sales with a number of price cuts in major markets across the globe.
However, the Cupertino based tech giant looks in no mood to take this lying down and now has a new plan to infuse new life into declining sales figures next year.
If a recent report is to be believed, the company is in works to bring a foldable phone to the market that would not only bring new premium buyers to the company but also help it fend off the growing competition from the likes of Samsung and Huawei which are reportedly in the process of bringing in their very own foldable phones in the coming months.
According to a report published in CNET, Apple has updated a "patent with drawings of a foldable clamshell phone." The patent which was first filed in 2011, and updated in 2016, was further updated last week with a drawing of what might be an iPhone with a flexible display.
The patent shows a drawing of a phone that folds up in half and in approach is quite similar to what the likes of Samsung and Motorola particularly – with its updated patent for the Razr phone – outline.
What is also interesting is how the patent outlines various ways in which Apple could incorporate the hinges around a flexible OLED display to make the phone bend in half. As CNET points out, there are "drawings of a clamshell design and another illustration is of a trifold design. The drawings show flexible screens folding up inward and outward which could indicate use in something beyond a phone like a MacBook or iPad."
However, the patent doesn't speak about when such a device with a bendable display could finally make it to the market. The tech giant has long been rumoured to be in the works to create a bendable display smartphone, but we haven't had concrete hints as to whether if a phone such as this would ever become reality.
For now, rumours point to a line-up of phones for Apple in 2019 that would be similar to last year’s iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, in terms of design.
But with the competition heating up, and competitors looking to bring new path-breaking technologies to their phones, we won't be surprised if Apple expedites its plans for a foldable display device and announced something as early as the end of the year.
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