Apple is said to be working on a new foldable device with a 20-inch screen that will combine the best features of the iPad and MacBook. Ross Young, the CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, broke the news first, detailing Apple’s foldable aspirations in their latest Foldable/Rollable report.
Young described Apple’s new device as “A true dual-use product, a notebook with a full-size keyboard when folded and for use as a monitor when not folded and used with an external keyboard. It may also allow for UHD/4K resolution or even higher at that size. The time frame is likely 2025 or later though.”
Yesterday, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman followed up on Young’s report with more details about the possible form factors. “The company could go with a foldable 20-inch screen attached to a physical keyboard or just have one side of the display serving as a virtual keyboard. I’m told Apple has indeed been exploring a dual-screen, foldable MacBook/iPad hybrid that would take the second approach,” Gurman wrote.
As you may know, Apple has long been notoriously critical of the 2-in-1 device trend promoted by Microsoft and other PC manufacturers over the last decade. There are still no touchscreen MacBook models, and Tim Cook notoriously criticized attempts to mix PCs and tablets as “converge a toaster and a refrigerator.”
Lenovo’s first foldable PC, the ThinkPad Fold X1, grabbed headlines last year, but the $2500 device was bulky and arrived with a Windows 10 operating system that wasn’t designed for this new form factor. Apple may be in a better position to sell a foldable PC to customers because of its unique ability to merge hardware and software.
