Apple's second foldable device exposed: this time it's a tablet—will device boundaries disappear?

Apple's second foldable device exposed! This time it's a tablet—are device boundaries about to disappear? By Shi Hun Yin, 2 hours ago. A tablet that doesn't want to be a laptop is not a good tablet.

When it comes to developing foldable devices, is it only zero times and countless times?

After the first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, caused a sensation, Apple's second foldable device is not far away from us. Recently, tech blogger @Kang revealed that Apple is testing a huge foldable tablet, similar to Huawei's device.

The Huawei device mentioned by the blogger should be the foldable laptop MateBook Fold. Judging from this, Apple's device is very likely, like the MateBook Fold, to combine the advantages of a tablet and a laptop.

According to verification by Leitech (ID: Leitech), as early as a year ago, Tianfeng International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed that Apple was developing a foldable tablet with an unfolded size of 18-20 inches. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reported that Apple was still advancing the project, but it might not be released in 2028 and could be delayed to 2029.

However, what Leitech really cares about is not this foldable tablet itself, but that the entire digital technology field is blurring the boundaries between phones, tablets, and laptops, making digital products like "crossover" models such as coupe SUVs, combining the advantages of different categories. Integration of form and function has become an industry trend.

In 2019, Samsung and Huawei successively launched foldable phones. The Galaxy Fold's inner screen reached 7.3 inches when unfolded, and the Mate X's large screen reached 8 inches when unfolded. At that time, the mainstream industry view was that a foldable phone is an ordinary bar phone when closed and can become a small-sized tablet when unfolded—one device, two uses.

Later, Huawei and Samsung also launched tri-fold phones. Among them, the Huawei Mate XT's screen can reach a maximum size of 10.2 inches when unfolded, and its office and audio-visual entertainment experience caught up with large-sized tablets.

(Image source: Leitech production)

While phones were challenging tablets across categories, tablets also fought back against phones through small sizes plus gaming optimization. Some small tablets even added support for SIM or eSIM, allowing calls and texts, just like 8-9-inch giant-screen phones.

The same is true in the tablet and laptop fields. In the early days, companies improved the office experience of tablets by providing keyboards and styluses, and added touchscreen functions to laptops, even adopting designs where the screen and keyboard can be separated, providing tablet-like handheld operation.

Magnetic and Bluetooth detachable keyboards for tablets are very common in the industry, supported by many products such as Apple iPad and Huawei MatePad. Touchscreens and detachable laptops are also common. Many laptops under Huawei and Xiaomi support touchscreens. Apple's new MacBook Pro, reported to be released on October 28, is suspected to feature a touch OLED screen.

Huawei MateBook E series and ROG Flow X series laptops adopt detachable keyboard designs, and can be used both as large-sized tablets and as ordinary laptops.

Huawei MateBook Fold brought the foldable screen technology common in the phone field to the laptop industry. The device is up to 18 inches when unfolded and supports an external Huawei Xingyue portable keyboard. If you don't want to carry a keyboard, after folding the MateBook Fold at 90°-150°, it can also summon a virtual keyboard.

(Image source: Leitech production)

The reason the boundaries between phones, tablets, and laptops are blurring is, first, that user needs have changed, and second, that the logic of human-computer interaction is also changing.

In the early years, users' needs were fragmented: phones for communication and socializing, tablets for audio-visual entertainment, and computers for work. Today, users need task continuity. We read materials on our phones on the way, then sit down and edit directly on a large screen, without transferring files back and forth or reopening projects. When Leitech colleagues travel on business, they often use foldable phones to write articles on buses, subways, and planes. This method is more convenient than taking out a laptop to work in a cramped space.

The handoff, multi-screen collaboration, and cross-device file transfer launched by manufacturers are essentially responses to this need. But some consumers do not want to buy or carry a bunch of devices and hope one device can adapt to multiple scenarios.

The development of AI has changed our operating logic when performing some tasks. For example, when we see a good picture and want AI to help remove an object from the background, or slightly adjust the position of the subject in the image. On a phone, we can completely use finger touchscreen selection.

On a computer, an external mouse is still easy to operate, but using a touchpad is more troublesome. Previously, some computer manufacturers even added a dual-screen design to laptops to solve this problem, that is, an additional touchscreen above the keyboard area for operations such as selection and smudging.

However, for phones, tablets, and laptops to completely replace each other, the key is still overcoming the ecosystem challenge. System ecosystem, the biggest obstacle to blurring boundaries.

Although manufacturers have been trying to blur or even eliminate the boundaries between phones, tablets, laptops, and other devices through form design and function changes, to this day, foldable phones still cannot completely replace tablets, and there is a world of difference between tablets and laptops.

Many factors—system, efficiency, power consumption, heat dissipation, usage habits, and more—are hindering different devices from bridging the gap. Among these factors, the system ecosystem is absolutely the most important.

As a MateBook E user, I can clearly feel how awkward Windows is for touch operations when using it. Its UI controls are designed for a mouse cursor rather than fingers, and many operations still follow the click-to-select, double-click-to-open logic, which is completely different from tablets and phones. Third-party app adaptation is even more of a mess.

(Image source: Leitech photo)

When using foldable Android phones, Leitech also found that many apps do not adjust to the inner and outer screen ratios of foldable phones, and are forcibly stretched when unfolded. Even Apple, known for system adaptation and optimization, has similar problems. Leitech tested 10 automotive apps with the iPhone Duo, and only Tesla had dedicated adaptation, and even its details still had issues, such as abnormal image display in the app.

Fortunately, compared with devices based on Android and Windows, Apple and Huawei have a huge advantage in blurring device boundaries.

After Apple's self-developed M-series chips replaced Intel chips, the chips in Apple phones, tablets, and laptops were unified under the ARM architecture. Moreover, Apple's phone, tablet, and laptop chips can theoretically be used interchangeably—for example, the iPad Air uses the M4 chip, and the MacBook Neo carries the A18 Pro chip—making software adaptation and migration more convenient.

Currently in the Mac App Store, we can already see many "great iPad games for Mac with Apple chips."

(Image source: Mac App Store screenshot)

Huawei goes further: HarmonyOS supports develop once, deploy on multiple devices. Developers only need to write one set of ArkTS/ArkUI code and package one HarmonyOS HAP bundle to install and run it on HarmonyOS devices such as phones, tablets, foldables, HarmonyOS PCs, smart screens, car systems, and watches. The system can automatically change the UI layout, interaction mode, and available functions according to screen size, input method, and hardware capabilities.

Of course, this does not mean HarmonyOS apps can run perfectly on different categories of devices directly. Developers still need to plan the information hierarchy for different sizes, define layout switching rules, and optimize interaction logic, display characteristics, and so on. The significance of sharing core code lies in greatly reducing the time and economic cost required for cross-device software adaptation.

The biggest problem for Android and Windows devices is that there are too many existing APK and EXE software packages, and many developers lack the motivation to adapt to touch, folding, and other functions and designs.

Apple has industry-leading influence. Although the iPhone Duo's adaptation is currently incomplete and MacBooks have not previously tried touchscreen designs, I believe that as long as Apple is given some time, developers will be able to complete the adaptation.

Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system and ecosystem started almost from scratch and have the advantage of latecomer status. In terms of system architecture, it is more in line with the interaction logic of the AI era—intent-first, cross-device collaboration, and atomic services—and it is still being continuously optimized. HarmonyOS's weakness is that the scale of third-party apps is still climbing, and the efficiency dividend of "develop once, deploy on multiple devices" will only be realized after the number of apps crosses a critical threshold. Device boundaries will shrink, but categories will not disappear.

While launching one "crossover" device after another, manufacturers face a new question: if consumers buy one of these devices, will they no longer need to buy the others? Can selling by category separately earn more money?

At this stage, companies do not need to think deeply about this issue, because although the boundaries between devices are shrinking, the differences remain large. These products that blur device boundaries can, for now, only provide an experience close to other devices in limited scenarios. In the short term, phones, tablets, and laptops will not replace one another.

Take foldable phones as an example. Their large screens are close to small tablets in audio-visual experience, but small batteries and weak heat dissipation mean their gaming experience cannot match small tablets.

When folded to a certain angle, the Huawei MateBook Fold can accept input through a virtual keyboard, similar to a laptop, but a virtual keyboard with no key travel simply cannot compare with a real laptop keyboard in typing feel. Not to mention that some industrial scenarios have strict requirements for device operating systems and hardware configurations, making them hard to replace with "crossover" devices.

Therefore, Leitech believes that as the system ecosystem continues to improve and hardware such as foldable screens, hinges, UTG ultra-thin glass, and flexible OLED continues to upgrade, crossover devices such as foldable phones, foldable laptops, foldable tablets, and touchscreen and dual-screen laptops can provide a more complete experience in specific scenarios, but will most likely never completely replace one another.

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