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Apple has long reigned supreme as the best tablet manufacturer and if 2018 renders of iPad are any indications, then the Cupertino giant is set to create a massive sales boom in the tablet market. In order to counter this, Samsung has come with a radical design, which if implemented correctly can outsell any other device in the market.
CEO Samsung Electronics DJ Ko finally shed some light on its highly anticipated foldable phone in a recent interview. He revealed that the device can be expected to double up as a tablet that will fit in the user’s pocket as a folded smartphone. This implementation is far superior to any tablet in the market as it will allow the users to buy one product instead of two.
According to Koh, this product is not a gimmick which will disappear after six to nine months after it is delivered. Instead, it is intended to bridge the gap between smartphone and tablet, allowing for multitasking capabilities from a single device. Samsung has been teasing its flexible OLED displays since CES 2013, with rumored designs changing greatly across the years. Koh states that Samsung is not in a hurry to rush out a half-baked product. According to DJ Koh, initially the foldable smartphone target a niche, but the market will grow out and get more popular.
In the race to build the first foldable smartphone, numerous manufacturers have stepped up with their own efforts to produce a foldable smartphone. Huawei reportedly plans to release a foldable handset in limited quantities in 2019, and Lenovo and Xiaomi have also teased their own prototypes. Finally, LG has also invested big in flexible displays, and earlier this year showed off a concept TV that rolled up into a box when not in use.
Koh has previously hinted that we might see the flexible device appear in some capacity during a developer conference on November 7th, however, the handset is not expected to launch until sometime next year if development continues to go well. In the meantime, Huawei is rumored to launch its new foldable smartphone in limited quantities in November with a wider roll-out in 2019.
