In the neverending battle for smartphone dollars, Samsung struck a mighty blow against Apple last week with the unveiling of its new Galaxy Fold smartphone, which morphs into a tablet. The device, which comes with a hefty price tag of $1,980, functions as a standard size smartphone and also
unfolds into a tablet with a larger screen.
"Samsung has made Apple look bad," Canalys analyst Ben Stratton
told CNN Business. "Galaxy Fold is a great marketing tool. It paints Samsung as cutting-edge and innovative, and as a consequence, makes its rivals look slow."
Experts say the unveiling serves as a reminder that Apple hasn't brought forward significant innovation in a while.
"Just as with the very popular Motorola RAZR devices back in the feature phone era, we see foldable screens as a compelling form factor," Goldman analyst Rod Hall said, according to CNN Business. "We see this as challenging for Apple, who could find themselves with no access to the critical flexible OLED technology for which we believe Samsung has at least a two year lead over other display competitors."
Chinese phone maker Huawei, however, is making the jump into the foldable phone game. The company
recently released its offering, the Mate X, with a $2,600 price tag.
Per CNN Business:
At 8 inches, Huawei's phone folds out to a larger screen than Samsung's Galaxy Fold, which extends to 7.3 inches.
In phone mode, Huawei comes in around 6.6 inches and the Samsung at 4.6 inches. But the Mate X is only 11 millimeters thick when folded, much thinner than Samsung's 17 millimeter Galaxy Fold.
While many see the technology as a gimmick, others believe there is a significant market. On Twitter, CNN correspondent
Samuel Burke wrote:
"You might dismiss foldable phones like the new Huawei Mate X as just a gimmick. But all you have to do is look at all the people on airplanes who choose to watch movies holding up their phones to realize there’s pent-up demand for tablet-size viewing on a phone."
The Galaxy Fold is set to release April 26, while the Mate X does not yet have an official release date.