Samsung Galaxy Fold finally ready for launch, to hit markets in September

Samsung Galaxy Fold finally ready for launch, to hit markets in Sept.

Samsung's first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, will go on sale from September in selected markets after the launch was delayed by screen problems earlier this year, the company said on Thursday.

Samsung is hoping its highly anticipated foldable phone will revive flagging smartphone sales but its rollout has been hampered by defects in samples reported in April, when it was originally due to hit the US market.

The delays cost the South Korean tech giant sales that could have provided a decent bump in revenue during the slow summer season.

Samsung said in a statement it had made improvements to the nearly $2,000 phone and was conducting final tests. Changes included strengthening hinges which early reviewers had found to be problematic.

Analysts said headlines about glitches with sample Folds would dampen consumer excitement around the launch.

"Consumer confidence in Galaxy Fold has significantly deteriorated. If Samsung manages to sell 300,000 devices this year, that can be a decent performance given the delay," said Kim Young-woo, an analyst at SK Securities.

Samsung said earlier that it planned to make at least 1 million Fold handsets in the first year, versus the total 300 million phones it produces annually on average.

The world's top smartphone maker has hailed the folding design as the future in a segment that has seen few surprises since Apple Inc's groundbreaking iPhone was released in 2007.

Chinese rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has also announced a folding handset, the Mate X, which is expected to go on sale in September.

Samsung is still in talks with mobile carriers around the world to decide on details of the Fold's sale, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Business Standard

Blown away by innovation or price? Samsung's foldable phone up for debate

Samsung wowed the smartphone industry with the first mainstream foldable screen, accompanied by a nearly $2,000 price tag.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has wowed the smartphone industry with the first mainstream foldable screen, accompanied by a nearly $2,000 price tag that generated heated debate as to whether it may prove too expensive to revive slumping sales.

The South Korean tech giant unveiled the Galaxy Fold which resembles a conventional smartphone, but which opens like a book to reveal a second display the size of a small tablet at 18.5 cm (7.3 inches). It will go on sale on April 26.

(Business Standard)

At its launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Samsung upped the surprise factor by briefing analysts and journalists on widely anticipated aspects ahead of time, such as 5G versions of its existing top-end Galaxy S phones.

The unveiling of the foldable device came as a shock to many in the auditorium.

"I am blown away," said Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy, adding the phone could help Samsung rejuvenate its mobile business, whose lead is under attack from China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

"I believe you can innovate your way out of a mature market," he said, noting that when Apple Inc launched the iPhone in 2007, most industry watchers believed the market had matured for $100 "candy bar" phones without touch screens.

Bob O'Donnell of TECHanalysis Research said the work Samsung had done with Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp to adapt applications to the new screen was important.

He said though Samsung had teased the folding phone before, "to see it in action, to see the software – I was like, Wow.

It's hugely important that the software experience be good." The phone, which can operate three apps simultaneously and boasts six cameras, also challenges the notion of what a phone can cost, debuting at nearly twice the price of current top-of-the-line models from Apple and Samsung itself.

"Due to price, it's likely to be sold mainly to early adopters. Prices are key to expanding sales," said former Samsung mobile executive Kim Yong-serk, who is now a professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea.

"It will help Samsung burnish an image as an innovative company, but it is unlikely to be profitable. I expect Apple to wait say for one year and come up with foldable phones with more features, as they did with the smartwatch," he said.