Samsung's mobile chief says at least 1 million foldable phones will be mass-produced
Samsung showed off a little bit of its long awaited foldable Infinity Flex display last week at its annual developer conference. During the presentation, Samsung senior vice president of mobile marketing Justin Dennison stated that the first foldable device will go into mass production "in the coming months." As reported by Yonhap News (translated), Samsung mobile chief D J Koh pointed out during the conference that the company will produce at least one million units of the phone, and that if market response is good, Samsung will manufacture more.
Koh predicted that the foldable form factor will not replace the current slab used on the vast majority of smartphones (with Samsung's Android clamshell W2019 an exception). But the executive said that the work done by his company in developing the foldable phone could lead to future models that will carry a stretchable screen. He says that Samsung will release its initial foldable phone in the first half of next year.
At the same time, Koh admitted that Samsung will not be first to the market with a foldable phone, as the Royole FlexPai was introduced on October 31st. The device, which transforms from a 7.8-inch tablet to a 4-inch handset, features high-end specs and is priced at the equivalent of $1,290, $1,435, and $1,865 depending on the model. So far, the phone is available for pre-orders in China only, and will start to ship next month. But the executive wasn't about to heap praise on the Royole FlexPai. Instead, he said that unlike the small California company that created the device, Samsung put some TLC (tender, loving care) into the user experience that customers will have with its foldable handset.
"The difference between the Samsung Folding Phone is to pursue the optimal UX (user experience) , battery, and lightweight. We met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai two months ago and organized a task force for the folder blueprint UX, and by distributing prototypes to developers on this day, we will create an optimal experience before launch."-DJ Koh, CEO, Samsung Mobile
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