Samsung will not commercialize foldable phones before 2019

There's been a lot of talk lately about the so-called Galaxy X, Samsung's presumed foldable phone. It has been speculated recently that it might come to the market before the end of this year, but it appears that these rumors were false.

At the Display TechSalon seminar in Seoul, Samsung Display's principal engineer Kim Tae-woong said that foldable smartphones will not be coming earlier than 2019.

“Because the bezel-free display currently sells well, we still have enough time to develop foldable display. The technology is expected to be mature around 2019,” Kim clarified.

Chung Won-seok, an analyst at HI Investment and Securities, also shared his views on the subject during the same seminar. “Samsung Display is expected to commercialize foldable phones in 2019 because the company does not need to sell the new hardware because it is already enjoying 20 percent of operating profits with bezel-free display,” he said. “When the demand for bezel-free handsets slows down, Samsung will unveil the foldable display as the next card.”

Kim Tae-woong later spoke with the Korea Herald, confirming that the foldable display tech still has some technical challenges that need to be tackled ahead of commercialization. Samsung Display also said that single foldable phones are likely to be unveiled first before multi-foldable ones, that fold on both sides.