The iPhone Fold needs to break this Steve Jobs commandment if it wants to succeed
Whether you want to call it iPhone Flip, iPhone Fold, or something else entirely, there’s no denying the fact that the upcoming foldable iPhone is going to be unlike any other Apple smartphone.
If rumors are to be believed, it may even have more in common with an iPad Pro than an iPhone 16. Which is why Apple needs to ditch one of the key iPhone commandments Steve Jobs laid out in 2007 during the original iPhone’s launch event.
“Nobody wants a stylus,” claimed Jobs. “If you see a stylus, they blew it,” he added in 2010.
Obviously things turned out differently with the iPad and Apple Pencil, and Apple certainly “blew it” — as many Apple detractors like to point out. But true to Jobs’ vision, Apple has never offered a stylus for the iPhone.
That needs to change when the iPhone Fold arrives.
iPhone Fold is basically an iPad
The prospect of adding a stylus to an iPhone could prove controversial. Partly because of Jobs’ own attitudes to them, and the fact iPhones have managed without needing one for 18 years now. But the iPhone Flip can’t be seen as a regular phone.
We don’t know a lot about the iPhone Flip’s specs right now, but we do know that it’s almost certainly going to be a book-style foldable — with a similar look to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Or, in other words, a large folding screen that’s hidden in an ordinary-sized phone.
If other foldables are anything to go by, that screen will be somewhere around 8-inches. Maybe a little less, but that would still mean the screen is firmly out of typical smartphone territory — and muscling in on tablet country. Which would make the iPhone Flip more like an iPad than a phone.
Size may not be the only way to differentiate between iPads and iPhones, but it is the big one. And while 7.5- to 8-inches is smaller than all the iPads Apple currently makes, there’s precedent for similar-sized screens to bear the iPad name, like the 7.9-inch iPad mini 5 and its predecessors.
It may be able to make phone calls, and run on iOS, but if it looks like a tablet and quacks like one too, then it sounds a lot like an iPad to me. And it would be weird for Apple to release anything iPad-adjacent without some kind of Pencil support.
Touchscreen or not, a stylus is great for tablets
The selling point of Apple iPhones and iPads is the touchscreen. In the years before the first iPhone’s launch, the majority of touchscreens were mediocre, to say the least. They weren’t very responsive and struggled with accuracy, so a stylus was probably the best way to get anything done.
For general everyday control, there’s nothing that beats the touchscreen. Even voice controls aren’t really at that stage, especially when Siri is involved. But there are cases when a stylus can be a very useful accessory to have. Optional, of course, but still useful.
Having such a big screen would be a waste if you weren’t able to take advantage of it in some way. There’s only so much streaming and reading you can do before that iPad starts to feel a little stale.
Those big screens can be utilized in so many different ways compared to the relatively-cramped iPhone displays. You have room for creating artwork, multitasking, and a device suitable for hand-writing. I’ll admit, I much prefer handwriting to typing and the opportunity to do that digitally has always appealed — hence why I ended up with an iPad.
A stylus can offer an extra level of precision that you just can’t get with a finger or thumb. It doesn’t matter how good your touchscreen technology is, no amount of upgrading can change the fact the input is essentially a blunt blob of human being.
Even if you’re not interested in writing or art, the guaranteed precision of a stylus tip means anytime you need fine control over the contents of your screen you have it. And the bigger the screen, the more you have to try and control.
Bottom line
I get that Steve Jobs didn’t want anything to do with styluses back in 2007, since Apple had to showcase how good the iPhone’s touchscreen was, but times have changed.
Whether Apple wants to add stylus support to non-folding iPhones or not, the iPhone Flip is the perfect opportunity to break with tradition. Not only is it basically an iPad, thanks to the larger display, it would give the phone a lot more utility. What’s the point in having an iPad that you can fit in your pocket if it can’t do all that an iPad can?
