Apple is rumoured to be developing a foldable phone with two facing screens that may double as a tablet when unfolded.

“Apple is working with suppliers on a foldable phone [that potentially could double up as a tablet] for launch in 2020,” Merril Lynch tech analyst Wamsi Mohan said in a note released after he interviewed Apple suppliers in Asia.

It’s worth noting that these kinds of musings based on supply-chain analysis can be fairly unreliable, especially when looking this far into the future.

ZTE’s dual-screener elicited little but yawns. Can Apple do better? Photo: ZTE

However, Apple is known to have filed patents for devices with foldable screens over the past few years, and it is no secret other companies also have looked closely at making phones with dual screens.

Chinese phone-maker ZTE actually released just such a device, the Axon M, late last year, but it failed to impress critics.

And Flextronics, a company that has been a contract manufacturer of Apple products for some time, even developed a dual-screen Android phone prototype all the way back in 2009.

Like ZTE’s Axon M that, too, went nowhere.

If Apple were to build a foldable phone, it’s likely the company would go beyond just putting a hinge on two screens.

A number of new screen technologies have made screens more flexible, with screen manufacturers exploring everything from bendable to rollable displays.

As is its standard practice, Apple is playing its cards close to its chest and didn’t respond to a request for comment.

-AAP