Foldable OLEDs: introduction and market status

Apple is moving forward with its first foldable OLED iPhone project, that will launch later in 2026, and it was previously reported that the US company has ordered 13 million units from SDC towards the end of 2025. Apple originally ordered 11 million units, but has recently added 2 million more as it anticipates high demand for its new device.

But now we hear a different report from Korea. Apple is actually highly cautious, and has decided to reduce its order to only 3 million units in the first batch. Apple seems to want to advance slowly and gauge actual demand before it moves to produce more devices.

Back in December 2025 Samsung launched its first tri-folding AMOLED phone, the Galaxy Z TriFold. According to reports from China, the company has decided to discontinue it and will stop producing more devices.

Samsung does not plan to develop a successor to this phone. It is reported that the company never intended for this product to be mass produced, it was always meant to be a limited edition device. 

Apple is moving forward with its first foldable OLED iPhone project, that will launch later in 2026, and the US company has ordered 11 million units from SDC towards the end of 2025. According to the latest reports, Apple is getting more optimistic about the demand for its foldable iPhone, and has recently increased its order by around 20% (or about 2 million more panels).

The foldable phone also includes another AMOLED panel for the external display, so Apple ordered also 2 million more of these panels. According to earlier reports, the price of each foldable AMOLED is around $250 - which means that this new order amount to something around $500 million, bringing the total foldable iPhone orders so far to around $3.5 billion. This is good news for Samsung that is suffering from a weak smartphone display market in China.

BOE announced that it has developed a new crease-less (or zero-line) foldable OLED display, which it brands as BOE Glaze Fold. BOE says that the new technology reduces the crease visibility (and feel) by over 40%.

The visible crease has been one of the major foldable OLED adoption hurdles. Earlier this year Samsung Display was first to demonstrate a crease-less foldable OLED. Reportedly, SDC's technology will be utilized by Samsung in their 2026 foldable smartphone - and also by Apple in their 2026 foldable iPhone.

BOE's crease-less OLED was enabled by a multi-neutral-layer architecture design, that performs better than the standard single-neutral-layer display. Using a gradient modulus design, the new multi-layer architecture helps the stress to be spread out on several layers, and so reduces the peak stress and finally stops the deformation that quickly happens with folding displays. 

Bloomberg is claiming that Apple is developing a large foldable iPad, one that features a 18-inch display when fully open. While this is an exciting project, Bloomberg's report says that there are many technical challenges, and the plan is to release it in 2029 - and the project will likely to be cancelled soon.

There are also other reports that Apple is developing a smaller folding tablet, that may replace the iPad mini. But there are not many details there, yet.

Lenovo is demonstrating a nice new folding gaming handheld concept, the Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept. This one uses a 11.6" foldable AMOLED display (produced by BOE), that folds-in to become a 7.7" panel when closed. 

The gaming console has several screen orientation configuration, and can also be used like a laptop and be attached to a wireless keyboard. This is just a concept device, at this stage.

Samsung Display is starting producing foldable OLEDs for Apple's iPhone Fold (that will be released later this year), and according to reports in Korea, the company is planning to expand its foldable OLED production capacity. Samsung Display estimates that the demand for its foldable displays, mainly from Apple itself and Samsung Electronics will be higher than its current A3 facility can provide.

SDC, according to the reports, is looking to enhance its A4 production line so it too can produce foldable OLEDs.  It is interesting to note that the report suggests that the main enhancements to the A4 line will focus on the backplane process.

Apple is moving ahead with its plans to launch its first foldable iPhone (the iPhone Fold?) later this year, and we already know that Samsung Display, who's the exclusive supplier, received a 11 million unit order towards the end of 2025, in addition to another 11 million unit order for the external displays.

According to reports from China, Apple is paying around $250 per foldable display, more than the price of the foldable OLEDs currently used by Samsung Electronics. The Apple foldable OLEDs are Samsung's highest-end foldable displays, that utilize the company's Color filter on encapsulation (CoE) technology to improve light output and reduce the thickness of the panel.

Samsung Display is demonstrating a new foldable AMOLED display, saying that this is its first crease-less foldable OLED.

It is reported, that unlike current foldable OLED displays, this panel has indeed no visible folds. It seems as if this new technology is based on a standard foldable OLED panel, paired with a laser-drilled metal display plate. This helps the stress to be dispersed more evenly when folding the screen, which eliminates the crease. 

Reportedly, this technology will be utilized by Samsung in their 2026 foldable smartphone - and also by Apple in their 2026 foldable iPhone.

According to reports from Korea, Apple has placed an order for 11 million foldable AMOLED displays from Samsung Display, to be supplied next year towards Apple's first foldable smartphone. In addition, Samsung will supply 11 million additional AMOLEDs, to be used as the external displays in the foldable iPhone.

It was initially expected that Apple will produce around 6-8 million foldable iPhones in 2025, but Apple is more confident regarding the demand for its first foldable device. This is excellent news for Samsung of course, and also for the OLED industry in general.