Steve Wozniak wants Apple to hurry up and build a folding iPhone

[midian182]

In brief: Despite the high prices and questions over their practicality, folding smartphones are up there with 5G as the mobile industry’s current hot topic. Several manufacturers are working on a bendable device, but one tech giant that isn’t in a hurry to jump on the bandwagon is Apple—and that worries company co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Royole might have been the first to show off a bendable phone last year, but since then we’ve seen similar products from Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola and more. But the only hint that Apple might be considering a foldable iPhone came in the form of a patent showing a clamshell device. Like all patents, there’s no guarantee this will ever make it beyond the initial design stage.

While we’re waiting to see how the public takes to folding smartphones, one person who can’t wait to get their hands on one is Steve Wozniak. Speaking to Bloomberg, he expressed his disillusion with the current state of the mobile industry.

“You know, I used to track a lot of stuff that was going on in the mobile world, and cellphones,” he said. “Every day I wanted to look ‘what's new and coming out with cellphones and I'd buy the latest products - many, many of them I had... and now I've lost that interest - I don't know why.”

“I don't know if I'm going to benefit from 5G, or that I really feel the need for an increase in cellular bandwidth right now.”

But one area that does excite him is folding phones, though he’s concerned that Apple appears to be lagging behind the pack.

"Apple has been a leader for quite a long time in a few areas such as touch ID, facial ID, and easy payment with the phone. They're not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone," added the Woz. “It’s one of those new technologies that catch my attention.”

Yesterday brought bad news for those hoping to purchase one of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold devices. The company is planning a luxury, high-end rollout, which could mean they’ll be as difficult to buy as they are expensive.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/78963-steve-wozniak-wants-apple-hurry-up-build-folding.html

 

[erickmendes]

" “I don't know if I'm going to benefit from 5G, or that I really feel the need for an increase in cellular bandwidth right now.”

But one area that does excite him is folding phones"

... Sure, who wouldn't trade faster monile internet for a fail prone gimmick?

 

[cldmstrsn]

Catch my attention? Surely he meant caught his attention

 

[ForgottenLegion]

"They're not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone".

Get used to it mate, apple are no longer market leaders in terms of technology encorporated into their handsets.

Then shitstorm that would ensue if he was to buy another brand for their foldable feature XD

 

[Mugsy]

Once again, Apple finds itself playing catch up.

If they want to leapfrog their competition, they might ask why use the same "bendable" screen technology for an entire screen that folds in only one spot, and instead make a phone that can be folded multiple times (or even into a tube?)

 

[Shadowboxer]

5G is way way more significant than folding phones. It really isn’t just about having more bandwidth for Instagram. Currently the average home (in the U.K. at least) is connected to the local exchange by a piece of antiquated copper, this is the slowest part of the public network. 5G can replace this, allowing for faster connected homes, allowing things like lag free game streaming, multiple UHD video streams and preventing us from needing to dig anything up to expand or improve the current infrastructure. It also makes self driving cars far far more reliable and trackable along with a whole wealth of other connected devices to have latency free high bandwidth access to the core network.

But nope, Wozniak thinks it’s more important that he can fold his phone in half.

 

[erickmendes]

5G is way way more significant than folding phones. It really isn’t just about having more bandwidth for Instagram. Currently the average home (in the U.K. at least) is connected to the local exchange by a piece of antiquated copper, this is the slowest part of the public network. 5G can replace this, allowing for faster connected homes, allowing things like lag free game streaming, multiple UHD video streams and preventing us from needing to dig anything up to expand or improve the current infrastructure. It also makes self driving cars far far more reliable and trackable along with a whole wealth of other connected devices to have latency free high bandwidth access to the core network.

But nope, Wozniak thinks it’s more important that he can fold his phone in half.

I've being thinking about that for some time... I live in Brazil. One employee costs a LOT for a company. With 5G you can cut off the "cable guy", the salesmen, and perhaps a lot of other middleware workers... You just let people get their sim card in vending machines or buy then online (IF 5G devices even use simcards...), buy your modem/phone/router/whatever 5G device and that's it, you will have fast internet for your entire household.

Using wired connections after 5G consolidation seems like only necessary for medium sized or bigger companies.

 

[Dosahka]

"They're not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone".

Get used to it mate, apple are no longer market leaders in terms of technology encorporated into their handsets.

Then shitstorm that would ensue if he was to buy another brand for their foldable feature XD

the thing is ppl started to hate and make memes out of iPhone 7 without jack and iPhone X with the notch, then silently started copy the notch by having one or more cameras and few more things (pixel 2-3), yet here we are in 2020, no competitor for FaceID (not that we know of) and phone started not to include 3.5mm jack. I'm sure when and if apple releases a foldable device everybody starts copying it...OFC they will do memes and such, but even Apple's iPhone share declining or rather steadily and slowly growing, they are still leading with technology.

 

[erickmendes]

the thing is ppl started to hate and make memes out of iPhone 7 without jack and iPhone X with the notch, then silently started copy the notch by having one or more cameras and few more things (pixel 2-3), yet here we are in 2020, no competitor for FaceID (not that we know of) and phone started not to include 3.5mm jack. I'm sure when and if apple releases a foldable device everybody starts copying it...OFC they will do memes and such, but even Apple's iPhone share declining or rather steadily and slowly growing, they are still leading with technology.

... Samsung and Motorola is already launching their foldable phones, and I'm not even talking about the chinese phone makers. FaceID for people who wear glasses is kind of a lottery, I really prefer finger scanner... And let's be frank, glasses is as certain as taxes after you get to the 30's, I myself wear glasses since 16 years, so FaceID is kind useless to me. Now about the p2 headphone jack, there seems to be newer phones that have and others don't, so I think it will take a while for them to retire it.

Apple may be the one that made smartphones what they are today, but it's loosing ground as an innovator. Still, I can't disagree that it will always have it's loyal consumer base because of how it's ecosystem model is well presented to their consumers, the ease of use is unbeatable after you enter the learn curve. Google could learn a thing or two with Apple on this front and create a more heterogenous ecosystem maybe with a different branding (Google "Somefancyname"), but seems like every big company moves slow, so it seems like we will be faded to accept Android fragmented ecosystem in the Android side of the wall, at least until the next big disruptior appear and shake the smartphone world.