Google Pixel Fold to launch in 2023: this time for real?

We have been hearing about a foldable Pixel phone from Google for some years now, but it seems as if the Search giant still doesn’t feel ready enough to enter this new market just yet. A recent report by the New York Times, however, reveals one detail that has made our ears perk up again! (via Android Headlines)

Initially, the Google Pixel Fold was allegedly scheduled to release in 2021, but that obviously did not happen, and the phone was delayed to a later date. Well, that date could very well be sometime during 2023, as is strongly implied by people familiar with the matter who talked to the NYT.

Ever since the pandemic hit the world back in 2020, the tension between the US and China has only been building up, which hasn’t stopped even now in 2022. As a consequence of these circumstances many companies like Google, Apple, Samsung, etc. have been slowly but surely moving their device manufacturing operations in China to other countries.

The report states that Google intends to move as much as half of its Pixel phone production to Vietnam by the time 2022 is over. The other phone maker colossus, Samsung, has already done this.

The more interesting part that’s related to the Pixel Fold, though, is that the source familiar with the matter claims Google is forced to keep the phone’s production inside China. Why? Because of the advanced parts making up its hinge, which supposedly can only be assembled there.

2023 almost feels like the last chance Google will get to release its first foldable phone, as the market for these devices is already developed to a considerable extent. Some of the best foldable phones are already out, and we are not talking only about the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, but other foldable phones such as the Oppo Find N or the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold.