iPhone owners are ditching Apple for foldables, Motorola claims

Foldable iPhone concept
(Image credit: Future)

In a world where more and more companies are launching foldable phones, Apple is quickly becoming the odd one out. And it seems that people are starting to lose patience waiting for a foldable iPhone.

With the likes of Motorola, Samsung, and Google having foldable Android phones on the market it's surely only a matter of time before a foldable iPhone arrives. But with there being little sign of that happening any time soon, Apple is losing customers to the competition.

How many customers? Motorola says that 20% of customers buying its Razr foldable phone previously owned an iPhone.

A bendy good time

CNET reports that Motorola's 20% figure is actually based on numbers from 2021, after the company launched its previous-generation Razr foldable. It just announced its replacement, and it's possible we will now see even more iPhone owners make the switch as a result.

"This is definitely the family that we have the most amount of iPhone users switching to us," Allison Yi, Motorola's head of North America product operations, reportedly told CNET.

It's been a while since we saw a credible rumor pointing towards Apple working on a foldable iPhone, however. Instead, it would appear that the company is more likely working on some sort of foldable iPad. There is even a suggestion that a large foldable display could form the basis of a new MacBook Pro, too.

Google, Apple's long-time competition in the smartphone world, recently launched its own Pixel Fold device that's similar to the already popular Galaxy Z Fold from Samsung. That form factor takes something slightly smaller than an iPad mini and folds it in half to create something phone-sized. Others, like Motorola's Razr, are more similar to the flip phones of yesteryear. 

It remains to be seen which route Apple will go down if and when it folds the iPhone. 

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

  • Wotchered
    Yeah,Yeah …
    Reply
  • Just_Me_D
    A ton of people? How many is that?
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    This seems to be delusional, wishful thinking on Motorola's part.
    Reply
  • EdwinG
    20% of 10 is 2 people. The article doesn’t give any number of users, making it difficult to gauge how widespread it is.
    Reply
  • Lee_Bo
    CNET reports that Motorola's 20% figure is actually based on numbers from 2021, after the company launched its previous-generation Razr foldable.

    And now, two years later, those iPhone users that bought the folding phone realized they made a mistake are are back on iPhone.
    Reply
  • dstrauss54
    Just_Me_D said:
    A ton of people? How many is that?
    Depends on whether the average weight is 150 or 200 pounds - my guess between 10-15...
    Reply
  • Ledsteplin
    dstrauss54 said:
    Depends on whether the average weight is 150 or 200 pounds - my guess between 10-15...

    I got 6 men and 7 women.
    Reply
  • FFR
    Lee_Bo said:
    And now, two years later, those iPhone users that bought the folding phone realized they made a mistake are are back on iPhone.

    They were back on the iPhone 4 months later .
    Reply
  • Annie_M
    Someone's dreaming...
    Reply
  • Lee_Bo
    Killeen92 said:
    Ummmm...no

    Well, of the number of people I know personally that have a folding phone (can count them on one hand), none of them were previous Apple users.
    Reply