Samsung Electronics Co, at its annual developer conference, gave the world a glimpse of its upcoming foldable phone with a flexible display. Samsung’s new foldable phone, which has been called Galaxy X in past reports is using the company’s “Infinity Flex” flexible display technology, which allows the tablet-like screen to be folded so that it fits inside the user’s pocket.
While there are many questions about Samsung’s foldable phone, it looks like the company will manufacture at least one million units when these devices hit the market next year. The report comes from Korea’s Yonhap, which quotes Samsung’s President of Mobile Communications Dong-Jin Koh as saying that the company is looking at the one million initial production units.
Koh made the remarks in a press conference, though he said he could not give a release date for the foldable phone. However, Samsung is expected to release in the first half of 2019. “I can not date it, but I will release it until the first half of next year,” he was quoted as saying.
The report further quotes DJ Koh as saying, “The production volume of flagship products is about 1 million units at the same production scale as Samsung Electronics…The volume of folder blueprints will be over 1 million units, and if the market response is good, it can produce more.”
Samsung has not yet revealed other details about its foldable phones. What was shown at the developer conference is only a prototype, and other details like the processor, battery, camera, etc are not yet known.
The South-Korean electronics giant is the not only company working on a foldable smartphone. Chinese rival Huawei is also believed to be working on a similar product, which could launch in 2019.
Foldable phones are supposed to be the next big innovation in the smartphone industry. Now whether these turn out to be practical and as useful as the current generation of smartphones, will depend on the kind of products which are unveiled and how they evolve in the coming years.
