Will foldable phones be the next big thing?

[HeyCori]

I think early adopters will be the "one device to rule them all" crowd. There are a few that love the idea of having a phone while also having a phablet in their pocket. So they can do real work (or at least pretend to do real work). That's also likely the sort of crowd that doesn't mind carrying around an additional bluetooth keyboard and mouse so they can be extra productive on the go.

Beyond that, I think general consumers will mostly steer away from foldable phones. Until they reach pure sci-fi levels of cool with nearly invisible bezels and seams, the current age of foldable tech isn't nearly as sleek or, in some cases, even as functional as what we already have.

However, I think foldable screens will be a major boom for the wearable tech industry. Imagine a smartwatch with a screen the width of your entire wrist while also being paper thin and comfortable. I have my doubts that phones will be where foldable tech takes off first... unless OEMs decide that every phone will be foldable and we're left with no other choice.

 

[Johnathan Dalipsingh]

I think you all are missing one major point here, the hopes of creating a new category in technology is one thing, but the most important aspect of this is making an experience with it that people will actually use on a day to day basis. So the following is 3 major factors that must be at play to allow this tech to work.

1) The technology must be finished and polished.
2) The technology must have an experience or subscription that people will use on a day to day basis
3) The price must be competitive.

Looking at no.1, I think the only players how can achieve this is Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei or possibly Microsoft. This players have huge R&D and can iterate and re-iterate in the labs until they get the perfect one.

2) Although Netflix and Amazon Prime are great services that you can get on all devices, they will prove to be best on these foldable phones, when you wanna watch something you can simply unfold the screen and go, but is this enough to get the customer to buy? No, in my opinion, I am watching Microsoft for this one, they have a new technology that is up and coming with streaming in real-time Xbox games, they can even let Xbox Game-Pass games work here, because face it, Phones are becoming more powerfull than the base Xbox now.

3) The phone must be released with a payment plan. No if's, but's or maybe's. The Plan must include the killer gaming service, unlimited data and the price must match or exceed that of Apple's offerings if they want it to be effective and competitive. The reason I included the Xbox service here is that Nobody is offering this type of service right now, and seeing that 5G is one foot out the door, MS can use this as an opportunity for their hero device to showcase 5G and what it can do, this will be a major win on MS behave and we as customers will be pretty happy with the result.

This is just my to cents.

 

[mc_razza]

I don't think foldable smartphones will go anywhere. It's a fad.

 

[AmeliaRichardson]

Totally agree

 

[Kimmo Toivanen]

2nd opinion on this: I have always used phones without and with protective shells. Now, in a mood to have all necessary cards with the phone and not carry wallet along, I ordered a wallet case. It simply is not for me, opening the flip to see the screen.

Now, imagine this with folding phone

 

[nate0]

Not really, as Samsung's foldable phone are out now, probably windows will need to adjust it's dictionary adding "foldable" in the existing words.

The phones are on sale and AT&T have begun taking pre-orders.

Ya let the first gen adopters take the price hit and bug widdling fun.

 

[nate0]

Surely, technology gets cheap each passing day!

Certain folks up top surely want us to think that!

 

[anon(50597)]

No, I doubt it.

 

[Akshay M]

Folding Phones are going to be the next revolution,

there shall be a separate niche in the segment, motorolla razor is planning to launch its fold-able phone motorazor, and even Mi is coming up with its folding fone phablet, soon or later it will be covering the market

only problem with the phone shall be the line in the middle of the fold no matter how much they try the line shall be there visible and also there are chances of the display getting damaged due to wear and tear.

all together a new form factor and totally new technology ,but it wil not take much time to get popularity in the market.