iFixit Removes Galaxy Fold Teardown at Samsung's Request

[Intellectua1]

That's utter nonsense. The flexible OLED screen has existed for years - people have been just trying to figure out how to make it work within a product and what to do with it. There are multiple small sized OLED screen makers. You're also getting the product division of Samsung mixed up with the manufacturing division. The manufacturing division has the tooling to make OLED screens at mass quantity for people like Apple, to whatever specs Apple comes up with - it has nothing to do with what the product arm of Samsung are doing in terms of releases and design. For all intents and purposes they are totally separately companies owned by the same publicly traded company.

Not getting anything confused, I know the difference between the two units. Now let's get to the facts.. No company on the planet is going to release their new "breakthrough" products to a competitor before getting use out of it themselves unless that competitor came up with the idea of folding screens and had Samsung make them which they didn't. No competitor is going to buy brand new tech without knowing it works well. So Samsung will make invent the screen, showcase uses for it (the Fold), and try to get other companies interested.
If Samsung can make this work well it'll be more business for their Samsung Display unit but first they need to show off how it will work.
And of course there are small OLED screen makers but it's been proven over and over Samsung makes the best displays so you can buy from any Joe Blow screen maker but will it be quality and can they produce at the capacity of Samsung, No!
So back to my original comment. Samsung will have to make it work first before this goes to anyone else being they manufacturer the tech.

 

[dilbert99]

As long as plastic is involved it's not going to happen.

That's what I thought originally, be it any material, not just plastic.

I did read that there are some metals that won't fatigue.

I also thought that you couldn't get glass to bend and looks like corning have shown that. - amazing if true and has a small bend radius. But still remain a bit skeptical.

 

[timber]

Why is that fair? Should newspapers not be allowed to post yesterday’s baseball scores because there will be new games played today?

Should car magazines not be allowed to share photos of prototype cars because nobody will ever be able to drive one?

If someone got a hold of a prototype AirPower should ifixit not be allowed to tear it down and publish to the world why it was defective?

The first examples aren't even appropriate equivalents.
Having an Galaxy Fold device that was lent to select reviewers and no one else under certain conditions is not the same as a public sport results or (usually heavily camouflaged) cars on public roads.
Samsung could probably use some sort of restraining order on iFixit but at least they had the common sense of not doing that.
In case someone got an AirPower prototype it would certainly be against some NDA agreement (or just plain stolen like in the past with iPhones) and I am pretty sure Apple would seek to protect that especially if it showed up around now, in 10 years as some sort of memory lane they would probably just don't care. Even if Apple didn't do anything (probably the smart thing to do as with Samsung) they would certainly have the right to ask or enforce taking down work done on their property without consent.

 

[GadgetBen]

I've always thought that iFixit were one-sided, they constantly berate Apple products and now we know why. They are clearly highly affiliated with a Samsung partner.

 

[Intellectua1]

By partially work you mean you travel back/forward in time but your legs are missing? Yeah somehow I don't think that would be considered a breakthrough.

If only the head came thru and the rest of the body disappeared you'd be hailed as the pioneer and everything will be based off your research with changes to the process, you would not be called a failure. Look at Space Travel, Cars, etc. Before there were projects that worked there were projects that failed, then either the originator or people after him/her built off those ideas to refine the project.

 

[Sodium Chloride]

How long would it take before the web archive article would be taken down too?

 

[bluespark]

To be fair, though, this was already going to be a 2-day story, as it was supposed to go on sale today.

I'm talking about the teardown specifically, but I take your point. Samsung also no doubt had other considerations in mind, such as what would come up in an internet search when the new-and-improved Fold is released. It's very possible they thought the damage caused by the teardown was so severe that it was worth the cost in PR that this move would cost. My point was simply that there is a cost to a move like this. The fact that they did it anyway illustrates what a debacle this release was.

 

[BruceEBonus]

"iPhones now serve only to provide a mechanism by which Apple can price gouge their customers on storage upgrades."
--Benjamin Franklin

Wow! That MUST be true then!

 

[willmtaylor]

I'm talking about the teardown specifically, but I take your point. Samsung also no doubt had other considerations in mind, such as what would come up in an internet search when the new-and-improved Fold is released. It's very possible they thought the damage caused by the teardown was so severe that it was worth the cost in PR that this move would cost. My point was simply that there is a cost to a move like this. The fact that they did it anyway illustrates what a debacle this release was.

Agreed. Furthermore, because the internet is the internet, the pictures and documentation will remain floating around regardless of the takedown request.
[doublepost=1556288042][/doublepost]

Wow! That MUST be true then!

“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” -Abraham Lincoln.

 

[leman]

I expected more from iFixit. Then again, I suppose that business is business. Still, very disappointing to see a major player who advocates for repair rights etc. play favourites like this. A major credibility loss for iFixit.

 

[willmtaylor]

I expected more from iFixit. Then again, I suppose that business is business. Still, very disappointing to see a major player who advocates for repair rights etc. play favourites like this. A major credibility loss for iFixit.

“Plays favorites”? Please explain.

 

[bluespark]

Why is that fair? Should newspapers not be allowed to post yesterday’s baseball scores because there will be new games played today?

Should car magazines not be allowed to share photos of prototype cars because nobody will ever be able to drive one?

If someone got a hold of a prototype AirPower should ifixit not be allowed to tear it down and publish to the world why it was defective?

There are some issues with these analogies, but the big difference between these situations and what happened here is your use of "not allowed." iFixIt was clearly allowed to post its teardown, but it is also allowed to retract it upon request. That's what happened here: it decided to honor the request notwithstanding that it could have said no.

 

[Intellectua1]

Samsung however is a display manufacturer, Apple not. Small but important difference...

Yeah I wasn't dissing Apple, I was basically said what you said. The person I replied to said "Apple probably junked the idea", I said they didn't but they'd have to wait until the manufacturer (Samsung) makes it work first before they can proceed since they (Apple) can't make it themselves. Which like your comment said Apple is not a display manufacturer. That's all.

 

[realtuner]

"iPhones now serve only to provide a mechanism by which Apple can price gouge their customers on storage upgrades."
--Benjamin Franklin

Oh look. Another Galaxy Fold article and another post (of many) trying to somehow bring Apple into this.

 

[Dave245]

I've always thought that iFixit were one-sided, they constantly berate Apple products and now we know why. They are clearly highly affiliated with a Samsung partner.

Agree 100%. If this had been Apple, people would be shouting from the rooftops about how Apple is trying to cover up a failure and so on.

 

[Intellectua1]

Are you sure Apple would use Samsung’s screens? There could be a good reason Apple invested $2.7 billion in LG’s OLED technology.

And LG is still behind with their crappy phone displays. Ask Google and the Pixel 2/3 crowd

 

[IIGS User]

iFixit folds on the fold....

 

[sidewinder3000]

It's unclear why Samsung wanted the teardown removed,

It’s not unclear.
It’s very clear.

 

[Andronicus]

By partially work you mean you travel back/forward in time but your legs are missing? Yeah somehow I don't think that would be considered a breakthrough.

I get what you’re trying to say, but bad example. Yes, time travel would be considered a break through regardless of missing limbs.

 

[69Mustang]

I've always thought that iFixit were one-sided, they constantly berate Apple products and now we know why. They are clearly highly affiliated with a Samsung partner.

Ben, do you actually know what's going on in this situation? I ask because your quote reads as if you really don't.

And iFixit does not berate Apple products. Their iPhone repairability ratings are testimony that you're wrong. They judge products regarding their ability to be repaired DIY. If a product is hard to DIY repair the score will be low, whether it's Apple's or someone else's. In fact I'd be willing to bet that any category where you think Apple is unfairly judged compared to Samsung, you'll find similar iFixit repairability scores.

 

[mytdave]

What Shamesung should really be saying is "thank God for iFixIt and others that brought this flaw to light, and saving us from another massive smartphone rollout failure."

 

[realtuner]

Ben, do you actually know what's going on in this situation? I ask because your quote reads as if you really don't.

And iFixit does not berate Apple products. Their iPhone repairability ratings are testimony that you're wrong. They judge products regarding their ability to be repaired DIY. If a product is hard to DIY repair the score will be low, whether it's Apple's or someone else's. In fact I'd be willing to bet that any category where you think Apple is unfairly judged compared to Samsung, you'll find similar iFixit repairability scores.

Look at any recent iPhone vs Galaxy S scores. The S8/S9 scored 4 while the S10 scored 3. The iPhone 7 scored 7 while the 8, X, XS and XR all scored 6.

I don’t think they’re biased against Apple.

 

[SoN1NjA]

You know this because you were part of the engineering team?

No, I know it because it never got released

Are you saying that the AirPower was fully designed and announced, but they just decided not to release it?

 

[jeyf]

flip phones will make a come back!
they still are trying to sell MBP's

 

[rpe33]

Say what you want about Samsung... at least they are innovating.... what’s Apple doing besides adding a freaking camera lense

It’s no way I’m upgrading from my mid spec XS Max this year

Is making crappy products an innovation now?