苹果第一部折叠 iPhone，9 月 9 日发布：新 CEO 上任第八天的第一场大考

On September the ninth, a lot of people will be waiting for one piece of news.

The news is Apple's.

Apple is going to show everyone a new phone.

This phone is not like any phone before it.

It can fold up.

Folding up means it works like a book: it can open, and it can close.

Closed it is small; open it is big.

Now a phone can do that too.

Let's start with what this phone is actually like.

When the phone is folded up, it is small.

The small screen is five point three inches.

The screen is the side you look at.

Making calls, checking the time — you use this small screen for all of it.

It fits in your pocket.

But when you open it up, it becomes big.

Inside there is another screen, seven point eight inches.

This big screen is roughly the size of a small book.

On it you can watch films, read the news, get work done.

One object, two sizes.

Small, it is easy to carry; big, it is good to look at.

And the price?

Two thousand dollars, or more.

Two thousand dollars could buy you two ordinary phones.

So a lot of people say: too expensive.

Others say: it's new, everything is expensive in its first year.

There is a question here.

Apple was not the first to make a folding phone.

Other companies started much earlier.

Seven years ago, companies were already selling folding phones.

So why did Apple wait this long?

Because a folding phone is genuinely hard to make.

After a screen has been folded many thousands of times, a line appears down the middle.

Some phones folded for half a year and the screen simply broke.

Apple did not want to make a phone that breaks.

So Apple kept waiting, and kept thinking.

Now Apple says: we're ready.

There is one more thing, and it matters.

Apple has a new boss.

The previous boss was called Tim Cook.

He did the job for many years.

A lot of people know who he is.

Now he has stopped.

The new boss is called Ternus.

On September the first, he started this job.

On September the ninth, he has to stand up in front of a great many people and speak.

From the first to the ninth is only eight days.

Eight days in, he has to show the whole world this new phone.

This is his first time.

A lot of people are watching him.

They want to know: is the new boss doing well?

And they want to know something else: without Tim Cook, is Apple still the Apple it was?

Apple gave this event a name.

The name is in English: "Surprise and shine."

It means: here is something you did not expect, and let it shine.

Apple likes talking that way.

But there is really only one thing everybody wants to know:

is this phone any good to use?

Think about it: your phone is something you use every single day.

If it could turn big and turn small again, would you spend two thousand dollars on it?