^{This text initially appeared on Enterprise Insider.}

Apple is reportedly engaged on prototypes of foldable gadgets.

The corporate is making prototypes of at the very least two iPhones that will fold widthwise and has reached out to at the very least one producer relating to components for foldable telephones of various sizes, The Data reported Wednesday, citing an individual with direct data of the matter.

The telephones are nonetheless within the early improvement stage and there isn’t any assure they ever turn into obtainable to customers, the particular person informed the publication.

Apple has additionally been contemplating a foldable iPad and has been working with LG and Samsung on shows for foldable iPad prototypes, The Data reported, citing former Apple workers.

Apple has been trying into foldable gadgets for years.

In 2016, the corporate acquired a patent for a telephone that might fold down the center. In 2020, Apple filed a patent for a foldable digital machine that, when folded, would go away a small portion of the show nonetheless uncovered so the person may proceed to see notifications even with their telephone closed. A patent software from Apple final yr detailed a foldable iPhone may shut itself if dropped to guard the display from critical injury.

In 2022, supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted Apple may launch its first foldable machine in 2025 on the earliest and anticipated it might be “a foldable iPad or a hybrid of iPad & iPhone.”

Final yr, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman stated of foldable iPhones that he “would not anticipate one launching within the close to future,” including that the corporate is extra “targeted on bigger foldable gadgets.”

In a resurgence for foldable telephones, rivals like Google, Samsung, and Motorola have launched their very own variations in recent times.

^{Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 (left) and Motorola Razr (proper). Finest Purchase / Motorola by way of BI}

The top of Samsung’s cellular expertise division, TM Roh, informed CNET final yr that the corporate’s foldable telephones had been “on par” with the also-foldable Galaxy Word in gross sales. The corporate has a purpose of promoting 20 million foldable smartphones this yr, in accordance with a report from Korean media outlet The Elec.

Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark forward of publication.