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Apple is now 6.5 years behind the foldable smartphone trend, which first emerged in late 2018 with the Royole FlexPai, a folable handset from the Chinese phone company Royole. The first widely recognized foldable phone, Samsung Galaxy Fold, debuted in 2019 but required a redesign due to durability concerns.

Since then, the foldable market has expanded with major handset manufacturers—including Huawei, Motorola, Xiaomi, Google, OnePlus, Vivo, and Microsoft—releasing their own models. 

MacRumors senior analyst Joe Rossignol wrote in a note on Tuesday that several sources have informed him about a potential foldable iPhone in the works. 

Here's more:

In a separate note, Goldman analysts Allen Chang and others plotted price points of the various foldable handsets on the market. 

2024 to 2025 smartphone model launch pipeline

A detailed infographic illustrating Apple's iPhone supply chain in China.

Apple might be late to the foldable handset market, but the real question is whether consumers actually want another unaffordable device from Tim Cook. Additionally, Cook's AI-powered Siri iPhone was a flop, and the Vision Pro was an epic disaster. Apple needs to reinvent itself.