If corporations figure out a way to pull it off, it is likely it will become the present of cell phones.
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Samsung Claims Foldable Phones Are Going Mainstream
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If corporations figure out a way to pull it off, it is likely it will become the present of cell phones.
You can do notifications and phone usage while folded on the flip too.
As for those not glued to their phones being a minority, I don't think so....
I'd never get the fold, it's too big -- which is exactly why I got a Flip, but to each their own, at least we have somewhat of a choice and I expect that choice to be even more available in the future. One size does not fit all.
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No wonder Apple hasn’t jumped onboard. Tech isn’t there yet. Samsung may be pushing it hard, but I have yet to see one of them in the wild. The videos I have seen online don’t instill me with confidence tho. The crease that inevitably develops is more annoying than any notch or aesthetic issue Apple ever gets slammed for. If they ever do it, I am sure they’ll do it right. I just don’t think they will tho until the technology catches up.
There are certainly a lot of smartphones, but how many of those are considered premium smartphones? The Fold starts at $1800, which puts it outside the range of most consumers. Pricing is the biggest problem with the Fold (excluding the Flip).
They are already playing: Samsung was on 87.8 percent of all foldable phones shipped in 2021, while Huawei only accounted for 9.3 percent of shipments, with Xiaomi, Royole, and Oppo taking even tinier shares.
But Apple entering the foldable market means these players will need to ramp up even more.
Apple will enter the foldable market when Samsung produces and sells them the screens that they need to make a good foldable phone.
The Mini has not "failed"
It simply hasn't sold in the very high numbers Apple wants/expects in order to justify it
Apple doesn't want to build a foldable iPhone cause they'll cannibalize iPad sales.
Everyone here hates foldable phones, but if Apple puts one out they’ll think it’s the greatest thing they’ve done and line up to get one lol.
I love my Flip Z 3, the only reason it isn’t my daily driver is because it doesn’t have iOS on it. I can deal with the camera compromise, the crease is not noticeable after a while, its the battery life that is my biggest issue.
I personally don't think Apple will release a folding phone. The use case simply isn't there. If you want a bigger screen, that's what AR glasses is for.
This doesn't mean there isn't a market for flexible displays, but I feel they make more sense in products with non-flat surfaces like AR glasses, but still with no folding involved (because that's still a major point of failure).
My money is still on people trying to make this product category sound like a bigger deal than it really is, simply because it's a market Apple hasn't entered (yet).
That's another reason Apple won't make it because it will cannibalize their future AR glasses
Hardly. Smartphones are not going anywhere, and even the screen size of the largest iPad is dwarfed by the immense field of view a pair of glasses can provide (which is basically as wide as you can see).
My take is that smart glasses will excel at tasks that involve mainly consuming lots of information passively with minimal interaction required by the user (which is why I argue that smartphones will still be around). I just don't think that folding phones make for a great user experience. You have to unfold them to get the larger screen estate, and then fold them again when it's time to put it away. Multiply this by the hundreds of times you take your phone in and out of your pocket, and I imagine it would get pretty annoying pretty fast.
It's just poor design.
I think you may be right, I hadn't really considered AR, having read about it just now, what you say makes sense, late 2024 (when it is rumoured that Apple will introduce AR glasses) is just too close for Apple to introduce a foldable phone as a "stop gap." It depends on how far Apple wish to push the AR technology on release of course.
It would make a crackling sound any time I opened it. It wasn’t too loud but you could definitely hear it.
Ford won't make a coffee table because it will cannibalize their car sales.
How many seconds does it take that coffee table go from 0 to 60?
Depends how steep the hill is.
Gosh…I really hope that Apple makes one with no crease…that is seriously the most annoying thing on these things right now.
🤣
When you sell one of something last year and then you manage to sell two of them this year, you've just increased your sales by 100%.
What I am suggesting is that 300% only matters with regards to the size of the market.
If one studies the diffusion of innovation (e.g. Geoffrey Moore's work), there is always a small class of users who are willing to adopt new products that the mass market is not interested in. These are the early adopters, and while they are nice to have, they are no guarantee of future success.
The real question is always understanding which innovations are able to cross the chasm into the mass market.
The way it looks right now, foldable phones are no sure bet to ever become a mass market product and 300% grow rates historically does not prove it will.
Fold users be like ‘This is very useful. Not bulky at all. I can fit it in my pocket just fine.’
