The iPhone Fold has been on and off for years, but now the supply chain is suggesting that Apple will announce it as expected in September 2026, yet not actually ship it for several months.
There are at last positive signs from Apple that it is preparing an iPhone Fold, but there have also been multiple reports that it is delayed. Now according to Economic Daily News, the CEO of Apple lens supplier Largan Precision has hinted at delays.
"Some new opportunities will be announced in the third quarter," Enping Lin said at a shareholders' meeting (in translation), "and some will be moved to the beginning of next year."
By itself, that's a slim comment to base speculation on, but Enping Lin also specifically referred to new devices. "The fourth quarter of this year will be busier than in previous years due to the scheduling of customers' new machines," he said.
Then there have been separate comments by Ruan Chaozong, general manager of Xinrixing, a firm now said to be making bearings for a folding iPhone. Ruan is reported to have said that Xinrixing is only waiting for Apple to decide on its shipping date.
It's still all far from a concrete leak, but these two different firms are both alluding to some device being rescheduled. More, the fact that one is a manufacturer of bearings, and the other is known for iPhone lenses, makes it sound likely that the new device is from Apple.
Given that and the history of reported delays since the iPhone Fold is believed to have entered manufacturing testing, the rumors seem reasonable.
We've been here before so often
There do seem to have been more reports of a September 2026 launch for the iPhone Fold than for any previous year. Yet there have been such rumors every single year since at least 2019, when Samsung launched its first folding phone.
This time the volume of rumors is higher, but they also tend to be contradictory. A possible consensus seemed to be emerging in April 2026 when it was claimed that the iPhone Fold would take longer to ship than expected.
In that case, the rumor was that Apple would announce the iPhone Fold at its September 2026 event, but not ship until October. Even then, it might only ship in small quantities, which is what Apple did with the original AirPods.
Although around the same time as those reports, there were also ones that said no, production issues were delaying the iPhone Fold until 2027.
If it really is delayed until 2027, that might account for how there have been fewer believable leaks of components than might be expected.
Separately, Apple has already been reported to be planning at least one folding iPhone in 2027 and 2028. However, that's expected to be a second-generation, bezel-free, and perhaps a flip model iPhone Fold.
