Tim Cook's Decade-Long Push Behind Apple's First Foldable iPhone

Apple's first foldable iPhone is set to debut, a product reportedly championed by outgoing Chief Executive Tim Cook for a decade. Although Cook is often seen as less hands-on with product design than Steve Jobs or Jony Ive, it was his direct push that brought Apple's foldable phone project to its current stage.

In 2020, during a trip to Asia, Cook saw a growing number of consumers using foldable phones from manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei, and he began more explicitly urging Apple to enter the market. At the time, the foldable phone market was still small, and Apple had no immediate plans to launch a product, but Cook believed Apple could not stay absent from the segment for long and asked his team to shift focus from tablets to phones.

Foldable phones involve complex hinges, flexible screens, structural design, and software adaptation, making development far more challenging than for standard iPhones. The project required sustained executive support to move forward. After the project entered its final phase, Apple's current Chief Executive John Ternus used his influence to bring the foldable iPhone to completion. This created a unique handover: Cook drove the project's initiation and long-term persistence, while Ternus steered it to official release.

Samsung launched its first foldable phone as early as 2019, while Apple spent years on research and evaluation.

Apple has not yet officially announced the foldable iPhone's specifications or design. The exact screen size, hinge design, camera configuration, and biometric methods will only be confirmed with the official release.