Research firm TrendForce expects Apple's iPhone Duo to grab a large slice of the foldable smartphone market next year, according to a forecast reported by MacRumors on Tuesday. The figures are projections, not sales data, and Apple has not commented on them.
According to the forecast, Samsung would remain the largest foldable brand in 2027 with 31.9 percent of global shipments, down from 35.1 percent in 2026. Apple is projected to reach 29.8 percent in 2027, which would place it second. For 2026, TrendForce's figures put both Apple and Huawei at 24.8 percent. Huawei is forecast to slip to 21.3 percent next year.
TrendForce estimates Apple will ship about 5 million iPhone Duo units in 2026, the year the device launched. The firm expects the broader foldable category to grow only modestly, at roughly 0.5 percent. In other words, any gain for Apple would come largely at the expense of competitors rather than from a rapidly expanding market.
The research firm points to Apple's control over its chips, operating system and developer ecosystem as an advantage. It expects app compatibility and hardware reliability to improve over time, and says that competition among foldables will increasingly turn on how efficiently the devices handle multitasking.
Early reaction to the iPhone Duo has been mixed, based on the accounts summarized by MacRumors. Users have praised the split-screen multitasking and the larger viewing area when the device is unfolded. At the same time, some apps still show black borders or fail to use the whole screen, and reports of damaged displays and expensive repairs have drawn attention to the cost of owning a foldable.
Those themes line up with other recent coverage of the device. Apple CEO John Ternus said on the company's earnings call that the iPhone Duo remains supply-constrained and that Apple has no date for catching up with demand, a point we covered on Monday. Supply limits could cap how quickly Apple's share grows, whatever the underlying demand.
As with any market-share forecast, TrendForce's numbers depend on assumptions about supply, pricing and competitor launches that the report as relayed by MacRumors does not detail. Treat the 2027 percentages as an analyst's estimate rather than a prediction Apple has endorsed.
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