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Oh my. Another thread by someone that doesn’t understand how economies of scale work.
Tell me, hypothetically speaking, when Samsung can make 20m folding screens per year and sells 10 million in their own devices, how could they manufacture Apple spec screens, which are different from Samsungs specs, in the 30-60m range?
It’s not about being first, it’s not about withholding invocations.

It’s a delicate and calculated plan to only sell what’s available to them any given year, plus their somewhat lackluster release schedule, like a new design in a year to push sales and such. They can’t sell what they themselves can’t buy.

Apple is one of the biggest companies ever, but doesn’t manufacture most of their parts themselves.
 
It seems to me that one would not need to unfold for the phone functionality. The unfolding is to produce a tablet from one's pocket.
What you have though is a poor quality phone experience and a poor quality tablet experience for three grand. The regular Z7 has all sorts of neat uses for the inner display from propping itself up as a tripod to sitting touch controls for games well away from gameplay. Its a decent sized phone that quickly opens into a larger phone when you need it. Its the Nokia Communicator experience still: texting on the outside, email on the inside.

Folding out a phone into a 10" tablet is not something one does in the street. The inner screen is too large for quick use and it cannot prop itself up. Given you really need an extra keyboard to turn it into something you can work on what you really have is a sub-par phone that folds out into a 10" monitor. If you need to sit down at a table to unfold it for it to be useful, what advantages does it really have over an IP68 Galaxy Tab or an iPad that might otherwise be slotted into your rucksack?

The Z7 has an obvious slot in the market because its an evolution of something from 20 years ago. The TriFold is two products welded together that offers 50% of the experience of either at 200% of the price. In nearly every conceivable scenario you might need it the combination of a regular tablet and a decent phone will nearly always be the better option.
 
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As shift to standarising on a connector like USB-C… is that the USB-C that the EU drafted, iterated and implemented? OR is that the USB-C that the tech world created and the EU waited until everyone was on to pass legislation to say they HAVE to use the tech they were already using. Just like Brazil did?

Actually, Brazil looked at the fact that everyone was already using USB-C and understood no legislation was required.
Not everyone was consistently using that tech… one company, I think we’ve heard about them before, refused to implement it on their most popular product. They’re called Apple, I believe, and the product was the iPhone (or something).

What does it matter that the EU decided upon USB-C as the de facto standard - it is arguably the best USB implementation to date.
 
The EU mandated USB C, so that -probably- accelerated the switch to usb c. I don't recall Apple viciously fighting the EU on this. They lobbied, they released some statements, but that was it. Nothing 'vicious' I believe 🤷🏻, just protecting their profit margin. They are a for profit company after all. But Apple most assuredly did not push the EU to mandate usb c 😂
Possibly the word "vicious" is a little strong, I agree. But keep in mind that when a multi-trillion dollar company doesn't want to do something a state / union body wants it to, especially when it involves a profitable revenue stream, they make it known in no uncertain terms, which is what Apple did and my assumption is that behind the scenes they complained big time about this, especially considering they were so public in their opposition. We know how careful Apple are about how they're perceived. Don't forget that every public response goes through a fairly tight hierarchy of legal and public relations filters so public opposition from Greg, means literally "f**k you, the EU, this is ridiculous, how dare you tell a business what to do". They ultimately had to aquiesce to the EU because the writing was absolutely on the wall for such a rational change (and you and I are glad of it). Greg Joswiak had something pretty non-sensical to say about it too:

“We think the approach would have been better environmentally and better for our customers to not have a government be that prescriptive”.
https://www.mobileworldlive.com/apple/apple-charges-ahead-with-usb-c-mandate/

His quote doesn't really make any sense - how could staying on a proprietary connector that was useful for just one or two devices (to my knowledge only iPhones and Airpods still used Lightning really at that time) be better environmentally than a connector which is universal for which just about everyone has a charger and a cable for (USB-C), meaning you don't need a backup kit of different cable types when you travel to a friends house, your workplace, a café that offers charging etc. An awful lot of us are glad that the EU were that prescriptive.

Totally agree that USB in general has it's own problems, and that's exactly what happens when a for-profit industry which you were correct to mention, controls a standard (Apple, HP, Microsoft etc). USB has been through so many iterations that its almost become a parody of itself, I just really hope that USB-C is it's last iteration for a really long time.
 
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