Huawei Unveils $2,600 Foldable 'Mate X' Smartphone to Rival Samsung's Galaxy Fold

[Mescagnus]

Huawei bots (by which I mean paid Chinese posters) are strong in this thread.

I'll give you this: the foldable Huawei (and Samsung) phone will outlive the curved/foldable 2018 iPad Pro. Why? Because Apple will release a new, strengthened body iPad Pro in the fall of 2019.

How do these things relate? They don't. One folds by purpose, other by accident But hey – folding is trendy, and Apple did a foldable tablet first!

 

[Dominicanyor]

Very expensive..

 

[AppleScruff1]

For sure...Apple no doubt has multiple prototypes of foldable screen iPhones for evaluation in their labs, for quite some time. Not ready for prime time.

Let Samsung and Huawei be the first, with compromises and all.

Somebody has to be first with compromises and all. Otherwise we’d still be living in caves. You can choose not to buy, but be glad someone gets the ball rolling.

 

[cmaier]

Somebody has to be first with compromises and all. Otherwise we’d still be living in caves. You can choose not to buy, but be glad someone gets the ball rolling.

I agree, though I hope these things don’t sell so poorly that the industry gives up.

 

[Abazigal]

It is indeed.

Tell you what, son. Put a reminder on your calendar for 1 year from today to come back to this thread. I've been doing forecasting a long time, and I'm really good at it. So let's go ahead and look at the data then. Sound like a plan?

I am willing to go out on a limb and join the “it likely won’t sell more than a million units this year” club.

@DNichter is right. Market share isn’t the same as usage share. Samsung and Huawei dominate in the sales of cheaper, lower end phones, and it doesn’t make sense to imagine that they can somehow translate this into better sales of their own foldable phones which are clearly not priced for the mass market at all. Internet chatter doesn’t necessarily lead to more sales either.

To put it bluntly, it doesn’t matter how good these phones are, because a large proportion of users are never going to buy them due to the price alone. Of the rest, Apple has amalgamated the best users, and its going to take a lot more than a folding phone to get them to defect, especially one that is clearly still a Gen 0 prototype.

Not to mention that Huawei and Samsung are two companies not exactly known for making great software - the secret sauce necessary to really make such a device take off.

 

[citysnaps]

Somebody has to be first with compromises and all. Otherwise we’d still be living in caves. You can choose not to buy, but be glad someone gets the ball rolling.

And Apple will release one when it’s ready.

If another manufacturer wants to release a compromised model, for $2,000, that’s fine.

 

[AgentAnonymous]

Chinese crap with a giant ugly crease in the middle of the plastic display. Don't buy Huawei.

Also I don't think this has anything to do with macs or Apple at all. Why is it on macrumors?

 

[AppleScruff1]

And Apple will release one when it’s ready.

If another manufacturer wants to release a compromised model, for $2,000, that’s fine.

If not for the compromised models appearing first, Apple probably wouldn’t release anything new.

 

[john123]

I am willing to go out on a limb and join the “it likely won’t sell more than a million units this year” club.

@DNichter is right. Market share isn’t the same as usage share. Samsung and Huawei dominate in the sales of cheaper, lower end phones, and it doesn’t make sense to imagine that they can somehow translate this into better sales of their own foldable phones which are clearly not priced for the mass market at all. Internet chatter doesn’t necessarily lead to more sales either.

To put it bluntly, it doesn’t matter how good these phones are, because a large proportion of users are never going to buy them due to the price alone. Of the rest, Apple has amalgamated the best users, and its going to take a lot more than a folding phone to get them to defect, especially one that is clearly still a Gen 0 prototype.

Not to mention that Huawei and Samsung are two companies not exactly known for making great software - the secret sauce necessary to really make such a device take off.

I quite intentionally did not say “this year.” I’m less certain on volume for calendar year 2019. I’m much more confident on 1MM+ units sold with “creases” in the next couple years for all the reasons I mentioned previously.

It’s just not that big of a number.

 

[Thanatoast]

Am I the only one who wants a foldable phone to fold like a 90’s clamshell phone and not like a book?

 

[DNichter]

I am willing to go out on a limb and join the “it likely won’t sell more than a million units this year” club.

@DNichter is right. Market share isn’t the same as usage share. Samsung and Huawei dominate in the sales of cheaper, lower end phones, and it doesn’t make sense to imagine that they can somehow translate this into better sales of their own foldable phones which are clearly not priced for the mass market at all. Internet chatter doesn’t necessarily lead to more sales either.

To put it bluntly, it doesn’t matter how good these phones are, because a large proportion of users are never going to buy them due to the price alone. Of the rest, Apple has amalgamated the best users, and its going to take a lot more than a folding phone to get them to defect, especially one that is clearly still a Gen 0 prototype.

Not to mention that Huawei and Samsung are two companies not exactly known for making great software - the secret sauce necessary to really make such a device take off.

Finally, some common sense. There is no way either of these companies sell millions of these devices in their first year. I think of them more as early release prototypes to generate buzz for the company to try and out-new each other.

 

[citysnaps]

If not for the compromised models appearing first, Apple probably wouldn’t release anything new.

Sure they would, assuming it was ready and Apple thought there was a market at the price it needs to be at to make their business case.

From what I've seen so far, I wouldn't be interested. Maybe others would be.

 

[Matt Leaf]

I dunno about you guys but to me these devices are folding the wrong way.

It’s interesting, they’re phones trying to be tablets, rather than a tablet that is simply foldable. I’d prefer the latter, so I can read it like, you know, a book

 

[Abazigal]

I quite intentionally did not say “this year.” I’m less certain on volume for calendar year 2019. I’m much more confident on 1MM+ units sold with “creases” in the next couple years for all the reasons I mentioned previously.

It’s just not that big of a number.

Well, it guess it’s easier to not miss a target if you are being vague and non-committal about it.

I am estimating roughly 1 million units for Samsung of their 1st gen foldable phone. For the simple reason that Samsung doesn’t actually seem interested in selling any of their folding phones at all. Their real intent seeks to be to drum up interest in this product category and get more companies to release similar competing products so they can sell more of their own folding screens.

I suspect Huawei is in it for similar reasons as well - to buy “street cred” so to speak.

Of course, if Samsung quickly iterates on this and releases a significantly improved version before next April, then it changes everything.

It also amuses me that people blast Apple for charging the prices they do for the iPhone XS Max, then turn around and think that everyone will be rushing out the door to pay over $2k for this folding phone, just because.

 

[PotatoLeekSoup]

Fun proof of concept for an R&D lab. But easily scratch-able plastic screen? No way to add a permanent protective case? $2600??? GTFO of here.

Just get the latest iPhone, and an iPad. Upgrade each separately as needed.

 

[reden]

This is the part where if Steve Jobs was alive, he would come in for the kill and slaughter these companies.

 

[jamesrick80]

That only works for samsung because they have yet another screen on the outside. Otherwise you’d have to flip the phone open constantly to do anything. Not an ideal solution. The best solution is fold so the screen is outward, but somehow make it not easily scratchable (either by some miracle of materials science or some other technique I can’t conceive of).

I'm sure their engineers went through tons of so-called best solutions; it is Samsung for goodness sake....they know hardware and design better than most other companies......I would wait and see how reviewers respond to Samsung's current solution once they do get a hands-on actual device. We are all having this conversation about what's suppose to work before we even have this device in action. No assumptions should be made until it is reviewed.

 

[john123]

Well, it guess it’s easier to not miss a target if you are being vague and non-committal about it.

I am estimating roughly 1 million units for Samsung of their 1st gen foldable phone. For the simple reason that Samsung doesn’t actually seem interested in selling any of their folding phones at all. Their real intent seeks to be to drum up interest in this product category and get more companies to release similar competing products so they can sell more of their own folding screens.

I suspect Huawei is in it for similar reasons as well - to buy “street cred” so to speak.

Of course, if Samsung quickly iterates on this and releases a significantly improved version before next April, then it changes everything.

It also amuses me that people blast Apple for charging the prices they do for the iPhone XS Max, then turn around and think that everyone will be rushing out the door to pay over $2k for this folding phone, just because.

I wasn’t being vague or non-committal. 2019 simply was never part of the conversation until you brought it up.

The whole point is that the other dude is just being absurd. He likes Apple stuff and wouldn’t accept the “compromise,” which is fine, but he’s therefore convinced that no one else will either, and that’s not fine. That’s the craziness to which I was objecting. That arrogance drives me batty.

Like I said, a million units isn’t that many. You seem to agree. So we would seem to have no quarrel.

 

[jerryk]

I think these are still a bit Gen 1 for me. But Gen 2 versions should be better, and I like the idea. Right now I travel with a phone and an iPad. I would love to get down to one device.
[doublepost=1551134258][/doublepost]

Am I the only one who wants a foldable phone to fold like a 90’s clamshell phone and not like a book?

Yes you are the only one. Just kidding.

I want one of these to replace carrying a tablet. To do that it needs to have a tablet form factor.

 

[cmaier]

I'm sure their engineers went through tons of so-called best solutions; it is Samsung for goodness sake....they know hardware and design better than most other companies......I would wait and see how reviewers respond to Samsung's current solution once they do get a hands-on actual device. We are all having this conversation about what's suppose to work before we even have this device in action. No assumptions should be made until it is reviewed.

I don’t take it for granted that samsung would get it right. On more than one occasion they’ve released hardware features because they could, not because they should.

 

[DNichter]

I wasn’t being vague or non-committal. 2019 simply was never part of the conversation until you brought it up.

The whole point is that the other dude is just being absurd. He likes Apple stuff and wouldn’t accept the “compromise,” which is fine, but he’s therefore convinced that no one else will either, and that’s not fine. That’s the craziness to which I was objecting. That arrogance drives me batty.

Like I said, a million units isn’t that many. You seem to agree. So we would seem to have no quarrel.

To be fair, you said millions. So I guess that’s at least 2 million? And you said by this time next year.

 

[john123]

To be fair, you said millions. So I guess that’s at least 2 million? And you said by this time next year.

Yep on the first part. The "next year" part came later in the context of discussing 1MM.

So let's do 1MM+ by February 2020, 2MM+ by the February 2021. I'm willing to plant a stake with those.

 

[DNichter]

Yep on the first part. The "next year" part came later in the context of discussing 1MM.

So let's do 1MM+ by February 2020, 2MM+ by the February 2021. I'm willing to plant a stake with those.

Fair is fair. I’ll take the CEO at their word. I’m assuming we are looking at the Samsung device?

 

[john123]

Fair is fair. I’ll take the CEO at their word. I’m assuming we are looking at the Samsung device?

Combined:

Yes. Millions. Samsung and Huawei don’t R&D something like this

 

[Ferc Kast]

Most pointless form factor ever. And even if Apple came out with their own version, I still would see no point to it.