iPad Pro rethink could prove that Apple is serious about foldables

(Image credit: LetsGoDigital)

published 16 December 2024

Quick summary

A alternative report says that Apple's giant folding device isn't a MacBook, as previously suggested.

It claims that it's an iPad instead – although it may be capable of running Mac apps too. Just don't expect it before 2028.

It's been a fascinating couple of days for news about Apple's foldable devices – two separate reports in big-name publications have cast light on Apple's plans for the next few years.

As we reported earlier, the Wall Street Journal has described a folding iPhone that's bigger than an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and also revealed that Apple is working on a large folding laptop. Now, a second report, from Bloomberg, says that Apple is working on a folding iPad.

Previous rumours had predicted an iPad Fold for launch in 2026, but the latest say it's taken longer than Apple expected – the launch is now expected to happen in 2028.

It seems that there's some overlap between the two most recent suggestions. The folding iPad described by Bloomberg sounds similar to the folding laptop described by the WSJ. But, while the WSJ claims that the device as a MacBook, Bloomberg disagrees.

Is Apple making a folding iPad?

We've heard rumours of a folding iPad for several years now, and according to Bloomberg, that's where Apple is setting its sights: "Apple knows that customers – gamers, software developers or just people watching movies – want the biggest screen possible. And the only way to sensibly ship a mobile product with a large display (one approaching 20 inches or so) is to make it foldable," it writes.

We've seen plenty of devices like this already from the likes of Microsoft and Lenovo. But, Apple is apparently thinking different, with an 18.8-inch display that doesn't have a visible crease and doesn't appear to be two separate panels. It will look like a single, uninterrupted sheet of glass, it is alleged.

The next bit is a prediction rather than a leak, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says he expects the device to run iPadOS – with an important difference.

By the time this device launches, which Gurman suggests will be in 2028, he believes that iPadOS will be advanced enough to run macOS apps. He also argues that the new device will be sold as an iPad alternative rather than a MacBook Pro alternative.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).