Apple registered a patent on Valentine’s Day for a display screen with enhanced touch sensors that included “a foldable electronic device” alongside a drawing.

If Apple intend to venture into the flip phone sector for the first time, it will have to take on its arch-rival Samsung which has ploughed money into it and started producing it four years ago, as a way of standing out from a highly competitive crowd, Samsung which launched Galaxy Z Fold4 last year, which looks like a smart phone but opens up to create a bigger, crease-free screen like a tablet, with unit vlaue of £2000 for the largest memory.

Bryan Choi, executive Vice-president of Samsung’s global marketing division said the foldable market was booming in the UK, up 700 per cent year-on-year.