Two weeks have passed since the unveiling of Apple’s first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, and this phone has not yet been released to the market.
According to ITNA citing PhoneArena, Apple has set its release date for October 23, and the gap between unveiling and release has drawn a lot of attention to this product. In this context, reactions from Apple’s competitors have also increased; including Samsung, which reacted to the iPhone Duo on social networks with a sarcastic tone.
Now Sameer Samat, head of the Android ecosystem at Google, has spoken about Apple’s entry into the foldable phone market. In an interview he emphasized that although Apple is new to this market, companies active in the Android ecosystem have been working on foldable phones for years and have gained a lot of experience in designing and using these products.
Samat himself is also a Galaxy Z Fold 8 user and says this phone has become a real productivity tool for him. According to him, sometimes he starts his work on the Fold’s large display and then continues it on his laptop.
However, Apple’s entry does not necessarily mean the loss of Android foldable phone users. Based on estimates from Counterpoint Research, Apple may capture about 25 percent of the foldable phone market in its first year of presence, and this share could reach about 40 percent by the end of 2027. Samat believes Apple’s entry could help raise public awareness and grow the overall foldable phone market.
One of the important points of competition is app compatibility with the large display. Apple has tried to prepare developers to optimize apps before the iPhone Duo’s release and showcased apps such as Slack and Netflix at the unveiling event.
In the Android ecosystem not all apps are yet well optimized for foldable displays and some merely stretch the phone-version UI across the larger screen. However, apps like TikTok, Gmail and YouTube are examples of better compatibility with foldable displays. For example, on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 you can watch a video on the inner display alongside the comments section.