Samsung's foldable phone may be twice the price of its rivals
Popular Chinese phone makers like Xiaomi and Oppo are on a scouting mission in Korea, reports local media, trying to secure bendable display supply for their future foldable phones. Yesterday, another Korean publication isolated LG as the main alternative supplier of flexible displays for all bendy phones that won't be made by Samsung, but China has its own display maker that also produces foldable displays - BOE, one of the world's largest LCD panel producers.
To wit, Chinese phone makers like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo, are actively pursuing their own foldable phone designs, and it's Xiaomi in particular that is scrambling for the title "world's first," even though Samsung and Huawei are farther ahead in their research on the matter. Samsung, in particular, has been toying around with the concept for years and is fast-tracking it now to ease the gloom of the transitional 2018 where the Galaxy S9 was used as a stop-gap measure on the way to the 10th anniversary Galaxy S10 with unpleasant consequences for the bottom line of its mobile department.
Samsung is taking exceptionally great care about the phone launch that has already been delayed several times. The firm also doesn’t want to hand over the 'world’s first title' to its Chinese rivals.
While Samsung may be way ahead of everybody when it comes to a retail model of a foldable phone, Xiaomi is determined to use a different, outfolding design type to beat everybody to the punch, claim insiders, and couple it with a much lower price tag to entice buyers. Samsung's infolding Galaxy X/F, or whatever it's called, is said to land at 2 million won ($1800), while the ones from Xiaomi or Oppo are tipped to cost a million won, or about $900. Where does that leave Huawei, which is also gunning to release a Gumby phone before Samsung, but isn't known to lowball the price of its flagships lately, remains to be seen.
The Chinese brands are successfully trying to shed their image of affordable phone makers with exclusive handsets like the motorized Find X or Vivo NEX with relative success, so a foldable phone will be one more way to prove the world they are real innovators, and apparently the race is on, for the delight of us mere mortal users.
source: The Investor
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: