Apple’s first foldable phone iPhone Duo unveiled, TrendForce estimates market share to reach 24.8% in 2026

Apple held an Apple press conference at 1 a.m. on Thursday (10th) Taiwan time, releasing its first smart folding phone "iPhone Duo".

[Reporter Chen Meiying/Taipei Report] Apple officially launched its first foldable mobile phone, iPhone Duo, with a book-style inward folding design, equipped with a 7.6-inch inner screen and a 5.4-inch outer screen. TrendForce estimates that iPhone Duo shipments will be approximately 5 million units in 2026, which will help Apple gain approximately 24.8% market share in the foldable phone market, becoming an important brand second only to Samsung.

TrendForce estimates that global foldable mobile phone shipments will reach approximately 20.2 million units in 2026, a slight increase of 0.5% compared to 2025. Excluding Apple's contribution, the total shipments of Android brands in 2026 will be only about 15.2 million units, a year-on-year decrease of more than 20%. The main reason is that the cost of components has increased significantly, and the shipments of various brands have mostly remained the same as the previous year or declined. Under this circumstance, Samsung is expected to ship about 7.1 million units, with a market share of 35.1%; Huawei is expected to ship about 5 million units, with a market share of 24.8%.

As folding devices mature, the technological competition has shifted toward thinness and lightweight, low creases and long-term reliability. Crease improvement no longer relies on hinges or a single material, but is developing towards the collaborative design of ultra-thin flexible glass (UTG), optically clear adhesive (OCA), OLED modules and support structures. By matching the material modulus, thickness distribution and stacking position, the stress distribution in the bending area is controlled.

According to TrendForce analysis, the internal screen of iPhone Duo uses an OLED display stack structure composed of ten layers of ultra-thin materials, with Nano-texture surface treatment to reduce the visual visibility of reflections and creases. The entire machine uses a Grade 5 titanium frame and hinge outer cover. The unfolded thickness is about 5.2 mm, the folded thickness is about 11.3 mm, and the weight is about 254 g.

In order to control the thickness and internal space, Apple does not configure an independent periscope telephoto lens. It only uses a 48MP main lens to provide twice the optical quality zoom, and replaces Face ID with side Touch ID. This shows that folding phones still have trade-offs between thinness, cameras, identification modules and battery space.

The design of the iPhone Duo shows that Apple is not simply pursuing a larger folding screen, but is focusing on crease improvement, long-term reliability, internal and external screen consistency to achieve differentiation, and the thin integration of the display module into the entire machine. At the same time, iOS 27 has enhanced Split View’s dual App juxtaposition, continuous display of internal and external screens, and operations at different opening and closing angles, further extending the folding form to software and multitasking experiences.

TrendForce believes that 2026 can be said to be a "structural restructuring year" for the foldable mobile phone market. The new demand brought by iPhone Duo at this stage can mainly fill the market gap caused by the decline of existing brands. From a mid- to long-term perspective, Apple’s requirements for display, UTG, hinges and overall machine structure are expected to help mature supply chain technology and expand mass production scale. On the other hand, there are also opportunities to prompt Samsung and Chinese brands to re-adjust their folding product strategies and accelerate the improvement of technical specifications and cost reduction.

In addition to the continued maturation of hardware technology, AI applications may also become an important factor in driving demand for foldable devices in the next stage. As generative and multi-modal AI are gradually introduced into smartphones, usage scenarios will extend from single App operations to real-time translation, content generation, image processing, document summarization and cross-App collaboration. Foldable mobile phones have a larger display space after unfolding, and can simultaneously display AI-generated content, original data and other applications, further amplifying the value of multi-tasking and human-computer interaction.

For Apple, iPhone Duo integrates Apple Intelligence and Siri AI to support natural language dialogue, personal context understanding and in-app operations. If the foldable large screen can be deeply integrated with AI and multi-tasking interfaces, it will have the opportunity to transform from pure hardware differentiation into a new interface hosting AI applications. This also means that in the next stage of competition for foldable phones, in addition to being thinner, lighter and lower in creases, how to create an AI experience that is different from traditional candy bar phones will also be the key to further expansion of the market.