After years of speculation and repeated leaks, Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone on September 9, 2026. The launch comes seven years after Samsung brought the original Galaxy Fold to market, and it is being treated as a defining moment for the company's new chief executive, John Ternus. Even before Apple says a word about its own hardware, however, competitors have begun repositioning themselves around the design that the company is rumored to have chosen. This year has already seen several Android manufacturers release wide, passport-sized foldables that look a lot like what Apple is expected to show.
The event will not be entirely straightforward. Reports indicate that Apple's iPhone 18 lineup will be staggered, with the Pro models arriving first and the standard iPhone 18 following early next year. That unusual choice has led many observers to expect that Apple will use the September event to make the foldable the centerpiece. The company is expected to pair the new foldable with its Pro lineup, giving carriers, app developers, and customers a reason to pay close attention to what has become a crowded but still niche product category.
The road to the passport-sized foldable
According to leaked schematics and supply chain reports, Apple has spent years developing a device that is notably different from the two major foldable styles that dominate Android. Most foldables sold today are either large, tablet-sized devices that unfold into a bigger square or rectangle, or compact clamshells that are designed to feel like a regular smartphone when opened. Apple's first foldable is expected to be neither. It is described as short, squat, and wide, roughly the size and shape of a passport when folded.
That kind of device offers a useful middle ground. When folded, it fits in a palm or a pocket more easily than a traditional slab phone. When opened, it provides a wider canvas for reading, email, video, and two-thumb typing. The trade-off is a less traditional portrait display, which may require some adjustment. Yet this is the form factor that an increasing number of hardware makers have begun to embrace over the past few months.
Competitors are already there
If the design sounds familiar, that is because some of Apple's largest rivals have already moved in this direction. Huawei's Pura X Max was released in April. Samsung followed with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in July. Xiaomi's 18 Fold arrived just days before Apple's event, though it is currently available only in China. Reports have also linked Oppo and Honor to similar wide foldables in development.
The timing raises an obvious question: how could these Android companies have copied a product that Apple has not even formally announced? One likely answer is that they did not need a public announcement. Apple has reportedly been working on a foldable phone since at least 2017, and its suppliers and partners were aware of that work long before the public leak cycle filled in the details. Apple's supply chain, refined under former CEO Tim Cook, is known for its scale and secrecy, but it is too large to stay completely hidden. Some leakers were pointing to a smaller, wider foldable as early as February 2025.
Samsung is especially well placed to know what Apple has planned because the Korean company is reportedly the manufacturer of the foldable display panel inside the new iPhone. Apple's position as one of Samsung's largest customers creates a strange relationship. The two companies compete fiercely in smartphones, but they also cooperate in components. That means Samsung would have had a clear view of Apple's direction well before the first units were ready for mass production. It is impossible to know exactly which company landed on the wide design first, but it is plausible that Apple's plans, passed through the supply chain, played a role in the recent wave of Android devices.
Apple's influence goes beyond phones
This would not be the first time that Apple's entry into an established category shifted the behavior of rival manufacturers. The iPhone Air, which revived interest in ultra-thin design, was followed within months by devices such as Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge, as well as lightweight phones from Honor, Huawei, and Tecno. In the laptop market, March's MacBook Neo inspired a wave of cheaper, colorful alternatives from Lenovo, Dell, and Acer.
Not every Apple product has that effect. The Vision Pro headset, for example, did not produce a rush of successful clones, a sign that rivals can tell the difference between a breakthrough and an expensive experiment. Yet in categories that already have clear consumer demand, Apple has repeatedly shown an ability to legitimize new designs and push them into the mainstream.
Why Android makers waited
For seven years, Android manufacturers have largely followed the playbook Samsung created. Foldables came in two flavors: a Flip-style clamshell and a Fold-style book. The most interesting early attempts to widen that formula came from companies like Oppo and Google, whose first foldables were closer in shape to the new wide design, though less extreme. Both later abandoned that approach in favor of more conventional book-style foldables, aligning themselves with the standards Samsung had established.
Now Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi are all selling wide foldables in the months before Apple's first model appears. The obvious change between the two periods is Apple's arrival. Rather than wait for Apple to define the category in public, the Android side appears eager to have its own versions ready, if only to avoid losing the narrative. This is not necessarily an act of copying. Design ideas move across the industry through shared suppliers, common user research, and a constant exchange of engineering talent. But Apple remains a powerful magnet for the timing and direction of those ideas.
A niche market about to change
Foldable phones have not yet become a mainstream phenomenon. Market researchers at Counterpoint estimated that foldables accounted for only 1.6 percent of all smartphone sales in 2025. Despite seven years of Samsung-led effort, the category has remained small, and many consumers have been unwilling to pay premium prices for devices that are thicker, heavier, and more fragile than ordinary phones.
That could change with Apple's participation. Counterpoint has also estimated that shipments of foldables will grow about 20 percent this year, with Apple taking a 28 percent share of the category after only a few months on the market. Numbers like that explain why Android manufacturers are eager to align with the new wide format. If Apple is indeed about to make a small, wide foldable, developers and accessory makers will pay attention, and a device that might have been ignored outside enthusiast circles will suddenly get mainstream support.
Apple's entry could also improve the reputation of foldable hardware. The company has often been criticized for arriving late to categories pioneered elsewhere, yet its ability to refine hardware and software together has frequently produced products that feel more polished than earlier experiments. The foldable iPhone has a chance to do something similar for the foldable market as a whole, by turning a technology that has felt exotic into a device that can be recommended to ordinary users.
Ternus's first big test
For John Ternus, this launch is deeply personal. Ternus, who previously ran Apple's hardware engineering group, has been the person most responsible for the physical quality and industrial design of recent Apple products. As CEO, he has to prove that he can protect Apple's culture of influence while also overseeing the company's services, marketing, and supply chain decisions.
The run-up to the foldable iPhone suggests that Apple's gravitational pull remains strong. The company has not needed to launch a product to convince rivals to respond; its mere presence in the market has been enough to inspire a wave of similar devices. The real test will be whether Ternus can continue that pattern over the next decade, as his hardware instincts are tested by larger strategic questions.
Apple's first foldable iPhone is more than another addition to the iPhone lineup. It is a measure of whether the company can still move an entire industry simply by choosing to show up.
Source: The Verge News