Remember when the original iPhone dropped back in 2007? Touch-screens had technically been around for years, but Apple didn't invent the tech—they just perfected it, mainstreamed it, and changed how we interact with technology forever.
Now, Apple is attempting that exact same magic trick with the foldable phone.
With the arrival of the brand-new Apple Duo, Apple is stepping into the folding phone arena. For years, foldables have been stuck in a bit of a niche, holding onto just a single-digit percentage of the global smartphone market. Samsung, Huawei, and others have poured billions into the category, but consumers kept running into frustrating trade-offs: clunky software, weaker cameras, shorter battery life, and that dreaded crease right down the middle of the screen.
Can Apple turn things around and finally push foldables into the mainstream? Let’s take a look at how we got here, and what the arrival of the iPhone Duo means for the future of mobile tech.
The Early Struggles: When Folding Phones Were a Wild Experiment (2018–2021)
Long before foldable concepts hit store shelves, engineers dreamed of flexible displays. But credit for shipping the very first commercial foldable device goes to Royole, a Chinese display maker, back in 2018. Their FlexPai phone featured a 7.8-inch outward-folding screen—though let’s be honest, it was widely panned for clunky software and stiff plastic hinges.
Things got even crazier shortly after when Samsung launched the $2,000 Galaxy Fold. Billed as the first mass-market foldable, it quickly became a tech PR nightmare. Reviewers discovered broken screens left and right, largely because users were peeling off a specialized plastic layer that looked like a standard screen protector. The debacle—lovingly dubbed "foldgate"—forced Samsung to halt the launch and pull review units back to the drawing board.
During this chaotic era, manufacturers couldn't even agree on what a foldable phone should look like:
Samsung went with an inward-folding book style that transformed into a small tablet.
Motorola tapped into pure nostalgia in late 2019, reviving the iconic Razr as a sleek clamshell that folded a standard phone in half.
Huawei dropped the Mate X in 2019, wrapping a single screen around the outside of the device.
Microsoft tried to cheat the system entirely in 2020 with the Surface Duo, stitching two separate screens together with a hinge instead of using flexible glass (a project they've since quietly retired).
The Slow March to Mainstream (2022–2026)
By the time Google jumped into the ring in 2023 with the $1,799 Pixel Fold, the hardware was finally starting to feel usable. The Pixel popularized a wider, passport-style shape that felt more like a mini-tablet.
Meanwhile, Samsung and its fierce Chinese competitors kept refining the tech. The next massive leap came in late 2024 with the introduction of tri-folds. Huawei released an accordion-style device that folded three ways for a cool $2,800, and it instantly became a massive hit. Samsung followed up with their own multi-folding marvel by December 2025.
Today, the market landscape is fiercely competitive. Samsung commands about 40% of the global foldable market, with Huawei trailing right behind at 30%, according to Counterpoint Research data.
One subtle battlefield in all of this has been the "passport shape." Google actually stepped away from the design after its initial run, but Samsung embraced it for several newer models. And now? Industry insiders note that Apple is leaning toward this wider, shorter format for the iPhone Duo. Why? Because it aligns much closer to the native aspect ratio of standard videos, effectively shrinking those annoying black bars you get on taller, book-style foldable screens when you're trying to kick back and watch a movie.
Why the Apple Duo Changes Everything
As of right now, September 2026, the launch of the Apple Duo marks a seismic shift for Apple. The iPhone makes up roughly half of the company's entire revenue stream. They don't jump into entirely new hardware categories lightly.
Apple is famously known for playing the "second-mover advantage." Instead of rushing out a half-baked product to win a race, they sit back, watch rivals make expensive mistakes, and let supply chains mature. Thanks to years of heavy investment from brands like Samsung—whose latest Galaxy Fold 8 has nearly eradicated the screen crease altogether—Apple is entering the arena at the exact moment the technology is finally ready for prime time.
Market analysts at IDC are already predicting that Apple's arrival will spike foldable shipments by nearly 30% this year alone, especially at a time when traditional, non-foldable smartphone sales are seeing a slight downward drift.
Foldables might still represent a fraction of the total smartphone market right now, but with Apple officially in the mix, the playground has completely changed. Competition at the high end is about to get fierce—and frankly, that's fantastic news for tech lovers everywhere.
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