Apple hasn’t sold a single foldable phone yet, and it’s already projected to be the second biggest player in the category. That’s either a sign of how powerful the Apple brand is, or how badly the foldable market needed a jolt. Probably both.
According to a new report by TrendForce, reported by Android Headlines, Apple is expected to ship around 5 million iPhone Duo units before the end of 2026. That would give Apple a 24.8% share of the global foldable market, putting it just behind Samsung in second place. For a first-gen product that launches in October, that’s a striking number.
Samsung is still forecast to lead the pack with 7.1 million foldable shipments and a 35% market share. Huawei trails closely with 5 million expected shipments and the same 24.8% share as Apple. So the top three are genuinely close, and a brand new entrant is already right in the mix. The overall foldable market is expected to reach 20.2 million units this year, which is only a 0.5% increase over 2025. So Apple isn’t just joining a booming category. It’s joining a slow-growing one and still expected to make an immediate dent.
That context matters. The foldable segment has been around since 2019 when Samsung dropped the original Galaxy Fold, and growth has been steady but never explosive. TrendForce notes that recent launches like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series have helped push interest, and the iPhone Duo is expected to add real momentum. But the broader point is that Apple’s entry could do more for foldables than any single Android device has managed in years, simply because it puts the form factor in front of an entirely new audience.
TrendForce also pointed out where the real competition is heading technically. The race is no longer just about who can make the biggest screen or the boldest design. Manufacturers are now competing on thinner builds, less visible crease lines, and long-term durability. And solving the crease problem isn’t as simple as tweaking the hinge. It now involves co-designing ultra-thin glass, optically clear adhesive, OLED modules, and support structures together from the ground up. That’s a materials science challenge as much as it is a hardware one.
Apple’s approach to all of this will be worth watching closely. The iPhone Duo comes in at $1,999, which is expensive but actually lower than some people expected. And that price point, combined with iOS running on a foldable for the first time ever, is almost certainly why TrendForce is comfortable projecting 5 million units in just a few months of availability.
Think about what that means. There are hundreds of millions of iPhone users who have never had a foldable option before. Now they do. Some will wait for gen two, sure. But plenty of early adopters who skipped Samsung’s foldables specifically because they didn’t want to leave iOS are now the exact target market. Apple didn’t need to reinvent foldables to matter in this space. It just needed to show up.
Looking further out, TrendForce forecasts global foldable shipments will grow to 23.5 million units in 2027. If Apple keeps iterating and drops the price even slightly, its share could grow further. The iPhone Duo is just the starting point.