Track Hyper | Apple's foldable device is tentatively scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2026

In early December 2024, supply chain consulting firm DSCC released a report stating that "in the third quarter of 2024, the global procurement volume of foldable screen panels experienced a year-on-year decline for the first time, with a decrease of up to 38%."

The DSCC report predicts that in 2025, the global foldable screen market will decline by 4%, with demand stagnating at around 22 million panels. In the next five quarters, the trend of declining foldable screen shipments will not change in four of those quarters.

Wall Street Insight has exclusively obtained information from the supply chain indicating that the Huawei Mate X6, which was released on November 26, 2024, and went on sale on December 6 of the same year, had overall sales by December 31, 2024, that were not inferior to the Mate X5, demonstrating Huawei's super brand dominance.

Wall Street Insight has learned exclusively that within the first two weeks of the Mate X6's launch, its sales increased by over 130% compared to the Mate X5's sales during the same period, which saw an increase of 12%.

For well-known reasons, the Huawei Mate X6 was only launched in the Chinese market, but within the first three weeks of its sales, its sales managed to catch up with the global sales of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 (released on July 10, 2024) within two weeks, highlighting the impact of Huawei's absence in the global foldable screen panel procurement volume.

In the third quarter of 2024, as mentioned in the DSCC report, Huawei did not launch any new foldable devices, and OPPO and vivo were also absent. However, Samsung Electronics, Honor, and Xiaomi all released foldable models, with Honor launching the small foldable Magic V Flip and Xiaomi releasing the large foldable MIX Flip.

The sales of these two models, viewed globally, can be considered negligible and will not have a positive impact on the overall foldable screen panel market.

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Fold6 sales fell short of expectations, while its market share for foldable screen models remains the highest globally; Huawei, Honor, and Lenovo rank second, third, and fourth, respectively.

Therefore, Samsung's foldable screen sales significantly impact the overall supply and demand situation of global foldable screen panels, but the presence of the other three Chinese smartphone manufacturers is not insignificant.

According to the DSCC report, it is expected that the panel shipments for the Samsung Z Flip6 in 2024 will decrease by over 10% compared to the Z Flip5 in 2023; the total procurement volume of Samsung's foldable screen panels is expected to decline by over 20%, reaching the lowest level since 2021.

When will this downward trend in global foldable screen panel procurement volume end? The industry is pinning its hopes on Apple, which is also venturing into the foldable device market.

On January 6, Wall Street Insight exclusively learned from the supply chain that Apple is indeed tentatively scheduled to launch a foldable phone in the third quarter of 2026 (most likely in September), and there may also be a foldable laptop. Apple's foldable model is likely to adopt a flip-style design, meaning a small foldable (Flip: vertically folded).

Rumors about Apple's launch of a foldable device have circulated every year-end, but this time, it is clearly different from previous years.

The rumors about Apple developing a foldable device have been around for at least two to three years, with various reports emerging continuously. Among them, the most notable point is that Apple's foldable device will "eliminate" the crease On December 11, 2024, the industry revealed a foldable screen hinge design patent obtained by Apple.

According to the patent description, this design can be widely applied to smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even wearable devices such as smartwatches. This indicates that the patent can be used not only for the iPhone but also deployed in the iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

This confirms the aforementioned information that Apple will launch a foldable laptop after releasing a foldable phone.

In addition, Wall Street Journal noted that Apple has another patented technology that involves cutting the inner side of the glass at the device's folding part and filling it with polymer material, thereby keeping the screen surface smooth and flat without creases.

Information about Apple's foldable phone or foldable iPad, or foldable laptop is very limited, mostly speculation. However, in the third quarter of 2026, Apple is set to enter the foldable device market, and at least this news has been preliminarily confirmed.

In this regard, the global foldable screen panel market is expected to emerge from its downturn in 2026.

The DSCC report predicts that in 2026, driven by Apple, the shipment of foldable devices will reach a historical high, with a growth rate exceeding 30%; in 2027 and 2028, the growth rate will also exceed 20%.

The DSCC report states that the foldable smartphone market is expected to grow from 19 million units in 2023 to 75 million units in 2026, with an average annual growth of over 50%.

It is worth mentioning that initially, Apple's foldable screen phone is expected to have its screens supplied by Samsung Display: based on 2026, the expected shipment volume is about 15 million to 20 million units, but Samsung Display's actual supply volume is about 16 million to 22 million units, which includes some potential waste (tolerance)