Apple CEO John Ternus has used a new interview with TIME to explain why Apple took so long to enter the foldable market, describing some early rival foldables as feeling "kind of cheap and crappy," according to MacRumors and 9to5Mac, which summarized the piece.
Ternus is on the cover of TIME's Best Inventions of 2026 issue, which MacRumors says is due October 26. The interview centers on the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable, which opens for pre-orders today, October 16, ahead of its October 23 on-sale date.
A long road to a foldable
According to 9to5Mac's reading of the interview, Ternus was involved in Apple's foldable research as far back as 2011, when he and five other engineers filed a patent application covering the batteries and circuit boards such a device might need. He is quoted as saying it felt clear that flexible OLED displays would eventually arrive.
Samsung shipped its first foldable in 2019, and Apple's device reached the market years later. In the TIME piece, Ternus contrasts Apple's approach with those early rival models, which he found underwhelming in feel and build.
Patience on materials
The report says Richard Dinh, Apple's vice president of product design, recalled asking Ternus whether the team should use a top-surface material similar to competitors', one Dinh considered flawed but possibly good enough. Ternus reportedly replied that the team would know when it was the right thing. Dinh said that gave designers confidence to push harder on innovation and manufacturing.
The result, per the interview coverage, is a nano-texture surface made from a custom polymer, sitting on a hinge built from more than 100 small precision components. Early users reportedly can barely detect the crease.
What it means for buyers
The comments are part of Apple's push to position the iPhone Duo, which starts at $1,999, as a premium device rather than a first-generation experiment. Whether the finished product lives up to that framing will be tested once customers and independent reviewers have it in hand.
The details above come from secondary summaries; the full TIME interview was not independently reviewed for this report.
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