Flip phones were all the rage when they first hit the market, but we shuttered within a few years for the first generation of the modern smartphone. Companies like Samsung are already starting to experiment with a foldable phone, but there has been some rumors and leaks that suggest that we’ll see an Apple foldable smartphone as well.

The Samsung Galaxy X

Before diving into the Apple foldable smartphone and the evidence that it may be in development, it’s worth talking a bit about the company’s biggest competitor – Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy X is the company’s worst kept secret, and while we haven’t seen much official news from the company there have been a number of rumors and leaks from around the web that paint a pretty clear picture that the company is currently working on a foldable phone.

The recent trend with smartphones is to give users the biggest screens possible. With more and more people turning to their smartphone as their primary way to consume media, having a high-quality screen with which to watch your favorite videos can make a phone much more attractive.

Smartphones have ballooned in size, however, and continually increasing the size of a phone would start to make it impractical as a mobile phone pretty quickly. Already some phones are too large, for those with small hands or pockets, and making them bigger is just flat out not an option. Shrinking bezels is an option that many manufacturers have embraced, but the market has been clamoring for something new.

That is where the Samsung Foldable phone and the Apple foldable smartphone may finally come into play. While we have much more information about Samsung’s model so far with rumors that the phone will extend into a screen far larger than most smartphones on the market while flipping down to be more compact, the Apple foldable smartphone has started to pique the market’s interest as well after some recent patent filings.

The Apple Foldable Smartphone

While the Galaxy X has been in development and the main model on the news when it comes to foldable tech, the idea of the Apple foldable smartphone has been around since the company first filed a patent for technology back in 2016. Many were surprised by how similar the Galaxy X looked to the model described in this patent, but it appears as if Samsung has charged ahead while Apple has failed to capitalize as quickly on the technology.

However, that definitely doesn’t mean that an Apple foldable smartphone isn’t in the works. While we didn’t see much information about the technology for around a year, we saw another patent filed back in November 2017 regarding a flexible display.

It’s important to note that a patent filing is not an indication that the phone is far along in development, but there is little chance that Apple will allow Samsung to take the lead in this cutthroat battle between the two tech giants.

Industry analysts claim that we’ll see an Apple foldable smartphone in 2020, which may be around the same time that Samsung will release their own Galaxy X – but considering the Galaxy X is already pretty far along in development there’s a real possibility that Apple will be late to the party.

It’s safe to say that a foldable phone will likely not release in this upcoming generation, but who knows what the future may hold. Patent filings and insider information from both Samsung and Apple suggest that both companies at least have the concept on the table.