Every major smartphone maker except Apple is betting that “foldable” phones will help Revive the sluggish mobile market, despite the devices still failing to appeal to mainstream consumers. From a report: Folds with a screen that opens like a book or a compact mirror barely account for a 1 percent market share of all smartphones sold globally five years after they were first introduced. But Samsung has doubled down on production and invested heavily in marketing this year. In July, the Korean group unveiled its 5G Galaxy Z series. The world's largest smartphone maker points to estimates from Counterpoint Research that foldable devices could make up a third of all smartphones priced above $600 by 2027.
Other handset makers such as Motorola, China's Huawei and its spin-off Honor are also counting on the product to help the market recover from its worst year in more than a decade. “This is the year of the people [in the industry] said Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight. “Everybody's betting on it now except Apple.” The iPhone maker has not shown any interest in the segment, though patent filings suggest it may one day launch. An iPad folds in half. Every other major smartphone maker has followed Samsung into the market, including Google's Pixel Fold and Chinese alternatives from Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi.
