news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

2024 is the year when foldable phones will mature - Samsung, vivo, Honor, and Xiaomi have successively launched foldable phones, which has heated up the market for foldable phones and intensified the competition.

But whether it is manufacturers or consumers, it is obvious that they cannot ignore the timing of the iPhone's entry - Apple has indeed been preparing for it.

Not long ago, Apple once again obtained a patent called "Electronic device with a durable folding display", which aims to improve the durability of the folding screen.

In this patent, Apple describes that a groove can be formed in a glass layer extending along a bending axis, and the groove can form a flexible local thinning portion in the glass layer so that the glass layer can bend around the bending axis.

Apple said in the patent:

In order to ensure that the display cover layer exhibits satisfactory impact resistance during a drop, portions other than the aforementioned thinned portions, particularly corner portions and other edge portions, may be provided with a greater thickness.

In other words, Apple described two possible solutions at the same time: one is to make the glass thinner in the parts that need to bend or intersect; the other is to make the glass thicker in other parts. These are not two conflicting solutions, but rather a collaborative approach in Apple's eyes.

When a device falls to the ground, it most often lands on an edge or corner. The solution proposed by Apple is to deal with this situation.

This is not Apple’s first folding screen patent report this year. In the spring of this year, Apple was also approved for several patents related to folding screens, including folding hinges suitable for larger devices and folding methods suitable for handheld devices. .

However, Apple applies for thousands of patents every year. Even if this patent is approved, it does not mean that a product will be launched soon.

In 2016, Apple first released a patent for a foldable screen technology. The patent described a mobile phone that uses a flexible OLED display and a hinged metal support structure, which can be folded in half horizontally. This news caused discussion among digital enthusiasts around the world. Two years later, Apple once again released a patent for a screen coating for a foldable screen. At that time, everyone thought that we would soon see Apple's foldable device.

Nearly ten years have passed since then, and Samsung has pushed the Galaxy Z Fold to the 6th generation. Domestic manufacturers have also followed suit in exploring horizontally and vertically folding devices, each with several iterations. During this period, Apple has sparked widespread discussion every year due to its continuous release of folding screen patents. Unfortunately, apart from various third-party revelations and the continuous accumulation of patents, we have not yet seen any definite folding screen release signals from Apple.

This continuous patent application and market speculation has formed a unique Cyber ​​​​Wolf phenomenon: people hope to see Apple bring something new to give the increasingly boring iPhone a dose of new vitality, but every time the news is leaked, there is no follow-up, so people continue to waver between expectation and disappointment and gradually lose interest.

But it is undeniable that Apple has accumulated enough patents and solutions in this field, and continues to prepare for the emergence of foldable screens. Recently, there have been reports that Apple is discussing with at least one Asian component supplier to purchase parts for foldable iPhones of various sizes and explore multiple foldable models.

Would you be willing to buy an iPhone with a foldable screen?