Apple is charting an audacious course into the foldable smartphone frontier, commissioning a colossal 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for its first foldable iPhone an ambition far more ambitious than the industry had dared to forecast.
According to a now removed ET News report, Samsung is preparing to fabricate 11 million inward-folding OLED displays alongside an equal number of external screens. As the exclusive purveyor of these essential components, Samsung’s plan hints that Apple intends to bring roughly 10 million finished foldable iPhones to market, anticipating the customary surplus of components to account for manufacturing yields and rigorous quality checks.
This strategy dwarfs prior expectations by over 30%, as analysts had initially predicted early shipments of merely six to eight million units. Those restrained projections were drawn from the broader foldable smartphone landscape, which has historically languished just above 20 million annual shipments—a testament to Apple’s unprecedented scale of ambition.
The device is envisioned as a book-style, inward-folding marvel, flaunting a 5.35-inch exterior display that conceals a 7.58-inch internal screen. Apple’s engineers are rumored to have perfected a sophisticated hinge and selected avant-garde materials designed to almost erase the crease, transforming the fold into a near-invisible seam.
Innovation cascades through its design: the use of Color Filter on Encapsulation (COE) dispenses with the conventional polarizer layer, weaving its function directly into the OLED stack, promising a slimmer profile and luminous brilliance. Meanwhile, whispers of an Under Display Camera (UDC) suggest a pursuit of seamless perfection, a display unblemished by punch holes or camera cutouts, inviting users into an immersive visual experience.
Apple’s foldable debut is poised to make its grand entrance alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max next year, heralding not just a new device, but a bold declaration: the age of foldable innovation has arrived, and Apple is leading the charge with unmatched ambition and meticulous craftsmanship.
