Apple is developing a a “giant” foldable iPad that unfolds into the size of two iPad Pros side-by-side, with an eye toward releasing the new device sometime in 2028, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
Gurman’s comments came in his latest Power On newsletter.
Apple’s goal for a foldable device is to avoid the crease that current products have when they’re in the open position. And the company has made progress on this front: Prototypes of this new product within Apple’s industrial design group have a nearly invisible crease. But it’s too early to tell if Apple will can get rid of it altogether. Samsung Electronics Co., which launched its first foldable phone five years ago, has tried unsuccessfully to remove the crease.
Gurman says that the foldable has been in development for a couple of years now, and is aiming for a 20-inch display to appeal to customers who want the biggest possible display in a portable device.
Gurman says Apple is aiming to avoid the crease that runs through the middle of current foldable devices, like those offered by Samsung and others. Instead, Apple wants its foldable iPad to look like “a single, uninterrupted piece of glass.” Gurman reports that prototypes of this new product within Apple’s industrial design group have a nearly invisible crease. “It’s too early to tell if Apple will be able to get rid of it altogether,” notes the reporter.
Gurman says it’s not clear whether or not the new foldable will run iPadOS or a variant of it:
My guess is that it will be iPadOS or a variant of it. I don’t believe it will be a true iPad-Mac hybrid, but the device will have elements of both. By the time 2028 rolls around, iPadOS should be advanced enough to run macOS apps, but it also makes sense to support iPad accessories like the Apple Pencil.
Gurman says the majority of Apple’s work on foldables is focused on the “higher-end” 20-inch device, but he maintains that Apple continues to explore the long-rumored foldable iPhone concept. However, Gurman does not believe a foldable iPhone will arrive before 2026 at the earliest.
