One of Apple’s design goals for a much-rumored iPad with a 20-inch folding display is that the screen won’t develop a visible crease, according to a reliable source of insider information.
Whether the folding device will be a Mac or an iPad isn’t clear yet — but it’s possible it will be both!
20-inch folding iPad won’t have a flaw in foldable Androids
So far, Apple keeps the maximum iPad size at 13 inches. But multiple reports from a variety of sources over the years indicate that the company is hard at work developing one with a screen of about 20 inches. All that screen real estate could make users very productive on the go, while also being well-suited for watching videos or gaming.
However, to make such a large tablet portable, the screen needs to be foldable. And one of the major problems preventing foldable phones from going mainstream is the unsightly crease in the center of their flexible screens. That won’t appear in the foldable iPad.
“Apple’s goal for a foldable device is to avoid the crease that current products have when they’re in the open position,” wrote Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman on Sunday.
It won’t be easy to pull off. Still, Gurman’s sources inside Apple say current prototypes almost eliminate the crease entirely.
A MacPad?
The iPad has plenty of fans — Apple sells more than twice as many tablets as it does laptops and desktops — but some people still call for Apple to upgrade iPadOS so it can run macOS applications.
Gurman predicts that will happen in the coming years, and says Apple’s folding iPad will be one of the beneficiaries.
“By the time 2028 rolls around, iPadOS should be advanced enough to run macOS apps, but it also makes sense to support iPad accessories like the Apple Pencil,” Gurman wrote.
That date is important — a recent report mentioned that Apple has an 18.8-inch computer with a folding display on its product roadmap for 2028. While that means the wait could stretch out three years, at least the computer that will eventually arrive will be a hybrid iPad/MacBook.
