Foldables are sort of boring now — and that's great news for Apple

Foldable phones used to be novelty — the kind of thing you had to explain at a party. Royole shipped the first one in 2018, and Samsung's Galaxy Fold followed a year later, only to have review units crack open within days. The launch was so embarrassing it became a running joke.

Now, after years of fiddling with hinges, creases, and broken screens, foldables are just… phones. They do what a regular phone does, only more expensive and a little heavier. The novelty has worn off. That's actually good news for Apple, which has been sitting out the foldable rush while Samsung and Google and the rest chased each other through the market.

By the time Apple enters the foldable category — if it does — it will be entering a market that's already mature. The hinge problems are mostly solved. The prices are settling. The novelty is gone. And Apple has a habit of arriving late to categories and making them its own.

Why this matters for us: foldable phones are no longer a Silicon Valley flex — they're just phones, and the ones that survive will be the ones built for real hands, real pockets, and real money.