After legit rumors, the CEO of the mobile division of Samsung confirmed to CNBC that the South Korean tech giant is supposedly working on Samsung foldable smartphones, which would probably be released by later this year or by 2019.
Very less information has been revealed, of which it’s one that the phone is to be called Galaxy X or ‘Treble Eight’. Another possibility for the name is the Galaxy F, which has been leaked and subsequently linked to the foldable phone. It’s a plausible choice because the letter F could easily stand for foldable or flexible.
Speaking to CNBC, Koh ran through the design thinking of the upcoming smartphone, particularly how Samsung is trying to differentiate the experience from a tablet once it is unfolded.
“You can use most of the uses … on foldable status. But when you need to browse or see something, then you may need to unfold it. But even unfolded, what kind of benefit does that give compared to the tablet? If the unfolded experience is the same as the tablet, why would they (consumers) buy it?,” Koh said at the IFA electronics show in Berlin last week.
“So every device, every feature, every innovation should have a meaningful message to our end customer. So when the end customer uses it, (they think) ‘wow, this is the reason Samsung made it’.”
The new device could be unveiled at the Samsung Developer Conference which is supposed to be held in November at San Francisco according to Koh. The CEO has confirmed that the process of developing the new device, the Samsung foldable smartphone, was undoubtedly complicated but the company has nearly “concluded” it.
The new move can be seen as Samsung’s plan to reinvigorate growth in its mobile division which is a sufficient fall in sale of 20% in the second quarter of 2018. With Huawei and Apple giving strict competition to this South Korean company, they are looking to bring something new in the market that will differentiate them. Koh is supposed to have said that the company is changing its strategy in the mid-tier smartphone market to pack lower-priced devices with new technology in order to appeal more to millennials.
