Apple set to launch first foldable iPhone as Android rivals converge on wide designs

Apple is expected to introduce its first foldable iPhone at an event on September 9, according to The Verge, arriving roughly seven years after Samsung's original Galaxy Fold reached buyers. The rollout will break from Apple's usual September routine in another way: iPhone 18 Pro models are expected first, while the standard iPhone 18 has reportedly slipped to early next year.

The foldable itself is tipped to be short, wide and roughly passport-sized — a silhouette that, as The Verge notes, has suddenly become the most crowded corner of the foldable market.

Android makers moved first, but may be following anyway

Over the past few months, Huawei shipped the Pura X Max in April, Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in July, and Xiaomi announced the 18 Fold one day before The Verge published its story. Oppo and Honor are also reported to have similar devices in development.

That raises an obvious question: how could rivals imitate a phone Apple has never even teased? The Verge's answer is that Apple's plans stopped being secret a long time ago. The company has reportedly been developing a foldable iPhone since at least 2017, and leaks pointed to a smaller, wider form factor as early as February 2025. Apple's supply chain — built up under former CEO Tim Cook — moves slowly and tends to leak along the way, and Samsung in particular is believed to have known the direction for some time, since it is reportedly manufacturing the foldable display panel for the new iPhone.

There is also a backstory. The Verge points out that early Oppo and Google foldables were actually closer in shape to today's wide folds, but both companies abandoned those proportions to match the Flip and Fold designs Samsung standardised. Until Apple's approach surfaced, Android makers were converging on sameness rather than experimenting.

A familiar pattern for Apple

This would not be the first time competitors rearranged their roadmaps around an Apple product. According to The Verge, last year's iPhone Air was followed by Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge and other thin phones from Honor, Huawei and Tecno, and March's MacBook Neo prompted a wave of budget-friendly, often colourful laptops from Lenovo, Dell and Acer. The notable exception is the Vision Pro, whose shortage of imitators suggests the industry can also tell when an Apple product is unlikely to catch on.

A niche category with room to grow

Foldables remain a small business. Counterpoint, cited by The Verge, estimated that foldables accounted for just 1.6 percent of all smartphone sales in 2025. The same report projects shipments growing 20 percent this year, with Apple capturing 28 percent of the category within a few months of entering it. If those numbers hold, Apple's arrival could pull foldables toward the mainstream in the same way it has for earlier categories it joined late.

Ternus' first test as CEO

The launch also carries weight inside Apple. It is John Ternus' first hardware release since becoming CEO, and as the company's former head of hardware engineering he had a hand in building the product influence Apple now enjoys. The Verge frames his challenge as keeping that influence alive — pairing hardware credibility with Apple's marketing, supply chain and services operations so the company can still reshape entire markets simply by entering them, five or ten years from now.

Why it matters

Apple's entry is the strongest signal yet that the wide, passport-style foldable is a durable form factor rather than an experiment. For buyers, a company known for polishing categories it joins late is about to apply that playbook to foldables, which have spent seven years stuck at niche scale. For the wider industry, the Counterpoint projections suggest Apple could become the category's dominant vendor within months. And for Apple itself, this week's event offers the first real evidence of what a Ternus-led hardware organisation prioritises.