24 hours after the local release of the new Samsung Galaxy S10 range of smartphones, including the $3,500 Galaxy Fold we can reveal that Samsung is already working on a sub $2,000 model of their Fold tablet smartphone offering.
In fact, the Korean Company is working on a pair of new foldable smartphones in a move that will see them go head on with Huawei and their Mate X.
The two new Samsung models include a clamshell-like device, and another that folds away from the user.
The move is set to give both Samsung and Huawei an edge over Apple, who many say could end up with “inferior” technology in their 5G handsets after a decision to dump Qualcomm, a leader in 5G technology for Intel who have only recently moved into the smartphone modem market.
“No one knows what the ideal design is yet,” said Bryan Ma, vice president of devices research at IDC. “The time is ripe for experimentation. Many of these designs won’t be successful, but industry players will learn valuable lessons along the way.”
A spokeswoman for Samsung declined to comment on plans for two new foldable phones.
Samsung plans to unveil their new vertically folding phone with insiders tipping an event in Europe around the IFA show in Berlin.
According to Bloomberg The gadget is designed with an extra screen on the outside, but the manufacturer may remove it depending on how customers respond to a similar display on the Galaxy Fold, they said.
The out folding device, which already exists as a prototype after being considered as Samsung’s first foldable gadget, will roll out afterward, the people said. It will be thinner because it has no extra screen, they said.
Samsung may also incorporate an in-display fingerprint sensor for its foldable line-up, as it did for the Galaxy S10 model announced last month, they said.
While Samsung works on new models, it’s also trying to improve the durability of the Galaxy Fold’s display. They’re trying to eliminate a crease that appears on the panel after it’s been folded about 10,000 times, and Samsung is considering offering free screen replacements after releasing the product, one of the people said.
ChannelNews has already described the first Samsung Fold as being an expensive Lemon, despite this Samsung is forecasting production of at least 1 million foldable phones this year.
The big difference between an Apple product and a Samsung smartphone is that Samsung produce their own memory chips and televisions, makes the foldable displays itself and supplies technology to rivals even Apple.
Last year Apple shipped 291.3 million phones last year while Huawei sold 205.8 million, according to Strategy Analytics.
Samsung will probably sell more than 40 million units of its flagship Galaxy S10 in the first year of release, according to Counterpoint.
Samsung spent eight years developing the Galaxy Fold and has worked with Google to adapt the Android operating system for a foldable screen. The company also envisions smartphones with rollable and stretchable displays in the future, Samsung Executive Vice President Chung Eui-suk said on the corporate website last month.
