Apple expected to produce more foldables than previously thought
9to5Mac reported today that ET News, in a deleted post, reported that Apple has bought 22 million OLED panels from Samsung for their upcoming foldable. This is split out by 11 million external displays and 11 million foldable displays. As 9to5Mac points out, the range of produced devices is most likely less than what is ordered to account for defects and other issues. This places the amount sold to be somewhere around 10 million units.
Other reports previously have said that the amount would be closer to 6-8 million devices, which is significantly less than 10 million. It is hard to say which estimate is correct, since ET News deleted their post citing the 22 million display unit figure. This could mean that this estimate is incorrect, or something else entirely.
Either way, it is clear that Apple knows that at least some people will buy it, but they also know to temper their expectations. They know it won't be an especially high volume product and that doing what they did with the iPhone Air may not work out and overproducing with this new category may not go well. This leads them to possibly scaling back compared to the other iPhone models, which can sell in the billions of units.
The iPhone Fold will be a great phone with lots of great features and improved portability because of the larger, foldable display. We will have to wait and see what Apple does soon.
