Tomorrow, iPhone Changes — Forever


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For almost 20 years, we’ve known what an iPhone looks like.

It has become thinner, faster, more powerful, and its cameras have grown from something you occasionally used into one of the most important parts of the phone. We’ve watched Apple move from plastic to glass, from Home buttons to gestures, from tiny screens to enormous ones.

But underneath all of that, the basic idea has remained remarkably consistent.

Every iPhone has been a single, rigid, rounded rectangle.

Tomorrow, that finally changes.

After years of rumours, reports, renders and increasingly difficult-to-ignore accessories, Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone. And while we’ve spent months trying to piece together what it might look like, there’s something different about seeing it through the lens of an Apple event.

Because until Apple puts it on that stage, it isn’t really an iPhone yet.

We’ve seen the cases. We’ve seen the leaks. We’ve seen manufacturers seemingly get a little too excited about products that Apple hasn’t even announced.

But tomorrow, all of that speculation gets replaced by reality.

And that’s what makes this event feel different.


A new chapter

Apple has never been particularly interested in being first.

Foldable phones have existed for years. Other manufacturers have experimented with hinges, multiple screens, unusual aspect ratios and increasingly ambitious designs.

Apple however, has watched from the sidelines.

If it really does introduce a foldable iPhone tomorrow, it will be doing so after having had years to watch everyone else figure out what works — and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t.

That makes me even more curious about what Apple has come up with.

AppleTrack / YouTube / Screenshot by Gizmodo

Will it feel like a traditional iPhone that happens to fold?

Or will Apple use the opportunity to rethink what an iPhone can actually be?

That distinction matters.

The original iPhone wasn’t simply a smaller computer with a touchscreen. Apple changed the way we interacted with a phone.

The iPhone X didn’t simply remove the Home button. It introduced an entirely new way of navigating the device.

And tomorrow, Apple has the opportunity to do something similar — again.


We’ve been here before

There’s something strangely familiar about the anticipation surrounding this announcement.

I remember when seeing a completely new iPhone design felt like a genuine event. Before the iPhone became an annual upgrade cycle, a new form factor could make you stop and stare.

iGeeksBlog

The original iPhone looked unlike anything else.

The iPhone 4 felt impossibly different.

The iPhone X made the Home button suddenly feel like something from another era.

And now we’re potentially approaching another one of those moments.

Not because we need another phone.

Not because a foldable automatically makes an iPhone better.

But because, for the first time in a very long time, Apple could be changing the shape of the iPhone itself.


Tomorrow, the rumours end

Perhaps that’s the part I’m most looking forward to.

For weeks, we’ve been looking at clues.

A photograph here. A case there. A manufacturer accidentally revealing something it probably shouldn’t have. A name appearing where it wasn’t supposed to. Another tiny piece of information that seems to confirm what we already thought we knew.

We’ve been reconstructing a product before Apple has even announced it.

Tomorrow, we can finally stop.

Tom’s Guide

Whatever Apple calls it. Whatever it looks like. Whatever it costs. Whatever compromises it has made.

We’ll finally get to see the thing.

And after almost two decades of iPhones looking fundamentally the same, that alone makes tomorrow feel significant.

Because when Apple walks onto that stage and unfolds an iPhone for the first time, we’re not just going to be looking at another new model.

We could be looking at the beginning of the next era of the iPhone.


And that’s why Tomorrow, iPhone changes — forever.

Comments

7 responses to “Tomorrow, iPhone Changes — Forever”

  1. […] So no, I don’t expect Apple Glasses tomorrow. […]

  2. […] It’s still a rectangular slab that you carry around in your pocket. […]

  3. […] Apple can make an incredibly thin, beautiful foldable. But if the hinge doesn’t stand up to heavy everyday use, none of that really […]

  4. […] amount for an iPhone, but it also starts to explain how Apple could be positioning the Duo: not simply as a larger iPhone, but as a premium device designed to blur the line between phone, tablet and […]

  5. […] on the day Apple is expected to introduce one of the biggest changes to the iPhone in years: its first foldable […]

  6. […] suddenly all those rumours about Apple’s first foldable being a ridiculously expensive, ultra-premium iPhone don’t seem quite so […]

  7. […] That’s especially interesting because this isn’t just another iPhone upgrade. It is arguably the biggest change to the iPhone’s physical design since the original arrived in 2007. […]