Didn’t think I’d be so quickly revisiting the last post, but I guess that’s the way it goes.
Though arguably, this is a much better example of the point I was trying to make yesterday, that Apple should pride itself on not following industry “trends” and fads, and instead do as they did in the past and buck the trends and deliver what regular people want, not what some tech journos who are Very Much Not The Target Market want.
Foldables to me have more of the fad energy than AI does. They feel like a solution in search of a problem. If I’m feeling particularly spicy even, I’d call them a rich person’s gimmick. They’re cool to look at. Maybe they’re cool to use, too. But they cost way too much and last half as long as your traditional smartphones, and to make matters worse they’re usually a total nightmare to repair.
Consumer electronics companies are endlessly searching for the next big thing because let’s face it: phones have plateaued. No longer are game-changing improvements being shipped every year. Everything is iterative. It’s more normalized–even in enthusiast circles–to keep your phone much longer. Rather than normalize this, accept that hey, as of right now tech has kinda plateaued and most of the improvements are going to be boring (better battery life/battery tech would be great, though that doesn’t make for good marketing, I guess), the industry is scrambling to find something, anything to convince people to stay on the upgrade cadences of the halcyon days of rapid smartphone innovation.
(This is why everyone and their mother is trying to ship some implementation of AI whatever in their gadgets. They think that everyone is going to absolutely cream their pants over it.)
Foldable phones aim to be this, to be this whiz-bang new thing that convinces people that they absolutely must upgrade and that their boring old slab of a phone is inadequate.
Never mind that foldables just feel like rich person playthings more so than anything else. Not only are they generally expensive, but as of right now it feels like every company making a foldable considers the screen to be a wear item. It’s a moving part. It will, eventually, wear out and require replacement. The screens are more fragile than the glass slabs we’re used to, so care must be taken in normal use. And when those screens do need replacement? They cost $$$$$$$. Better hope you have insurance.
(Hell, I have two friends who moved to foldables but dipped out because of this! A friend’s Fold3 had to be replaced four times before he finally had enough and switched back to normal smartphones. And another friend dipped out because of the cost to replace just about anything if something had broken. The juice just didn’t feel worth the squeeze.)
We haven’t even talked about size, either! Gurman wants Apple to make something like the Z Fold and Pixel Fold, which not only are bigger (even when folded) than traditional slab phones, but are thicker too, thus creating a bit of a situation if you’re trying to pocket this thing. The Z Flip and RAZR don’t suffer from this (as much). If Apple were going to entertain this idea, such a device should be marketed as a more portable iPad, not an iPhone.
Foldables don’t feel like they’re made for the average layperson. They feel made for the tech enthusiast with a load of money to blow. They don’t feel like a market Apple would just casually hop into, nor does it feel like one Apple should hop into just because the well-off tech journos are begging them to do it. I know, I know, Apple is one of those companies where the cost of something generally doesn’t stop them. The Vision Pro is an excellent example of this. But much like the Vision Pro–which is just flopping at the moment, because much like the foldables I talk about in this piece, it seems like an expensive solution in search of a problem–a foldable iPhone feels like it’d just be this expensive bauble that would be priced way too high for most normal people to consider.
I’d expect if Apple did enter the foldable race, their offering would be priced closer to the Z Fold than, say, the Z Flip. Given the absolutely dreadful state of the economy right now, I really, really do not see many people biting at that price. Maybe I’d be wrong though. Can’t do worse than the Vision Pro.
Much like the last piece, I really wish Apple would just say “no” more often. Because the so-called magic of Apple was that they weren’t afraid to tell you no, and then deliver you something they thought you needed (and usually being on the money with it). Apple focused on the normal people, not the techbros and tech journalist, much to their chagrin. But now I’ve not much faith because as I said with the AI, it feels like Apple’s now falling in line with what the tech press demands of them, chasing trends that I feel in previous years they would have rebuffed entirely.
Though maybe if Apple does do a foldable they’ll surprise me and I’ll eat crow. I’m not banking on it.