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The story
Bloomberg’s report on Apple’s reportedly long-in-development first foldable iPhone has been making waves on 5ch’s News Express+ board. According to the report, development has been underway for roughly a decade, and the device could cost over $2,000. The project reportedly gained momentum around 2020, when then-CEO Tim Cook returned from a trip to Asia after seeing firsthand how widespread foldable devices from Samsung and Huawei had become. The thread lit up with reactions ranging from shock at the price, to the ongoing iPhone-vs-Android brand rivalry, to concerns about screen durability.
(Bloomberg): Around 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook returned from a business trip to Asia showing unusually strong enthusiasm for a new product category: foldable smartphones.
Having traveled to China and other parts of Asia, Cook saw firsthand a growing number of consumers using foldable devices from companies like Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies. He returned home convinced that Apple needed its own product, and pushed the company to accelerate its efforts in what was then a still-nascent market.
In fact, a secretive core technology development team within Apple’s hardware engineering division had already been researching foldable smartphones, displays, and related components for years by that point.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article
What people said
Might actually be cheaper than an iPhone + iPad mini combined? That's what I tell myself — I'm Apple's perfect mark, a 'duck bringing its own onion' (Japanese slang for someone who makes it easy to be exploited).
That's my entire annual salary!!
You could just keep it folded shut and give AI commands, though?
The AQUOS wish can already do that.
Apparently Tokyo 'papa-katsu' girls (women who date older men for money) buy these to flex how rich they are.
Just slap an Apple sticker on a BlackBerry lol
So it's not really about whether it folds — people are buying it just because it's an iPhone. That's peak stupidity lol
That's just what the kids tell themselves. I mean, iPhone only has about 30% global market share anyway — it's basically a device for clueless kids.
It'll never become 'the iPhone,' but the Galaxy is well made.
When I want to catch some Champions League football in a spare moment, a regular iPhone screen feels too small. Comics and books are also less of a hassle to read on a foldable.
Makes me realize having good eyesight really pays off.
¥300,000 to carry around every day, can't even put a case on it, and a drop could cost you ¥200,000 to fix… sounds stressful.
Most women use iPhones — it's part of the fashion statement.
Because it's designed so even idiots can use it on instinct.
That thing was fun. Looking back, that was probably the richest era in terms of the balance between happiness and money.
The sense of style, the self-satisfaction, the feeling of superiority over everyone else — it crushes the competition on every one of those fronts.
Having one lets you act tough among the delinquent crowd.
The breakage rate is about on par with regular iPhones, maybe even lower. But since it's so expensive, the mental damage when the display gets a crease or stain is huge.
Of course it breaks. Obviously something that bends is going to break more than something that doesn't.
Seriously, Apple never does anything new anymore. All they've got left is charging a brand premium to the faithful.
Cook was competent, but he never put out anything genuinely new. He is a genius at supply chain management, though.
Seriously, this. And Japan's already fallen behind and gutted in those industries too. It's over.
Reminds me of how, over ten years ago, Japanese makers used to laugh and say 'a smartphone? We could whip one of those toys up in no time.' What they actually produced was a paperweight that overheats.
It's an octafold. You. Fool.
A Miura fold that shrinks a 32-inch screen down to palm size would be pretty cool too. (Miura fold: a Japanese origami-based folding pattern used in engineering.)
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
According to Bloomberg’s report, the foldable iPhone at the center of this discussion has reportedly been in development for close to a decade. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold and Huawei’s Mate X series have already been on the market for more than five years, making Apple a late entrant here. Given the weak yen, a price of over $2,000 could translate to an even higher figure domestically in Japan. The thread’s main points of discussion centered on shock at the specific figure of “¥320,000,” the ongoing brand-image rivalry between iPhone and Android, and concerns about foldable screen durability — concerns previously raised around devices like the Galaxy Fold. It’s worth noting that this article is based on reporting and speculation about a product that has not yet been officially announced; Apple itself has not confirmed a price or release date.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Apple] First Foldable iPhone, Nearly a Decade in Development — Could Cost Over $2,000.”
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