12 ms·

That just seems gimmicky at best IMO. No ecosystem. I expect it will sell for 2-3 years and then die off and have them lose money on it. What type of niche mark

That just seems gimmicky at best IMO. No ecosystem. I expect it will sell for 2-3 years and then die off and have them lose money on it. What type of niche market actually needs a phone that can display 3 apps at once and fold down to a brick sized phone? It's good that companies take these leaps of fate but they sort of seem reaching. Why not wait and keep pushing the tech until it's worth releasing a beautiful product that can capture actual market share?

drcode 8y ago
I agree this first-gen product is worth skipping, but given that many people spend probably 20% of their waking hours looking at their phone screen, it seems short sighted to me to argue that a 2x boost in screen size is merely a gimmick.
- bookofjoe 8y ago
  >given that many people spend probably 20% of their waking hours looking at their phone screen This sounds like punishment to me.
nicoburns 8y ago
I agree that this looks a bit early, but it also seems like a genuinely useful innovation if it can be pulled off. It reminds me a lot of the first MacBook Airs that sold to a niche market at a premium for a few years until the technology had advanced to the point that they could target a mainstream price point, at which point they became exceedingly popular. I could easily see the same thing happening here.
- canada_dry 8y ago
  > a genuinely useful innovation I agree. The writing is on the wall... people are ditching desktop computers in droves in favour of handheld/portable devices. Just as I usually do with any new V1.0 tech... I'm staying away, but am excited about future improvements!
jblow 8y ago
I want a phone that I can read books on, and spend quality time with, rather than reading crappy stuff like Twitter. I fully expect to buy a foldable (not sure which one) and would easily pay $2500+ for it. (It's not like I can buy laptops any more, since those are all garbage even when I pay $4000 for a supposedly high-end system, so I certainly have spare device money laying around!)
- goatlover 8y ago
  Kindles are cheap and light, if digital reading is your goal.
  - djhworld 8y ago
    I often read PDF versions of books (especially technical books) or PDFs of academic papers etc I've never been able to view these properly on a kindle. Well, last time I tried anyway, is it better now?
    - jshevek 8y ago
      A foldable phone would be great for PDFs. I often want to flip between pages quickly, which Kindles still can't do.
    - YUMad 8y ago
      Sony DPT-RP1.
    - Shorel 8y ago
      Kobo Aura One seems to be the right size for your use case.
      - photojosh 8y ago
        Yep, I'm currently reading my EPUBs and PDFs on an ancient iPad 3. I researched a newer solution and settled on a Kobo Aura One (or perhaps the Forma which came out only recently) running the open-source KOReader [0], which is apparently much better than the built-in app on the Kobos. But I'm too cheap to upgrade while the iPad still works. [0] http://koreader.rocks http://koreader.rocks
jdietrich 8y ago
>No ecosystem. The ecosystem is Android. The vast majority of apps should work just fine, even on a display with an unusual aspect ratio.
maxxxxx 8y ago
I think it's a good experiment to learn what users really want and what problems may come up with the device.
_bxg1 8y ago
Android is working on OS-level support for folding displays. This one's early, and will have limited support from apps, but I don't think the category will die as a gimmick. It has genuine utility, it's just been a technological hurdle. Personally, I'll wait another couple years for Apple to refine it a bit. Also, the smartphone market has started saturating and device makers are clamoring for a feature - any feature - that will get people to buy new ones. This has resulted in lots of little useless features as they attempt to differentiate, but here we have an actually super useful feature which is costly to implement and will induce real gadget-envy for the first time in years. So there's going to be a gold rush behind it.
- franciscojgo 8y ago
  If they are working from the OS side that’s perfect. But I Im no way expecting to see anything but the most important apps have useful multi-app-in-screen interactions. Yeah YouTube, FB, Search, w/e but will that make it worth it? Sort of like the Touch Bar on MacBook Pros (which I have). Yeah it’s awesome to have on select apps like Photoshop, Safari, etc but it’s in no way so valuable as to build a whole product around - like this phone is trying to do. You can take the Touch Bar away from me at any moment and I won’t mind. Unless apps deeply integrate with this folding capability etc its just a gimmick that I expect will die pretty quick or remain a very niche product.
  - jshevek 8y ago
    > useful multi-app-in-screen interactions. I use multiapp all the time on my current phone. I love it. Android makes it easy to move in and out of multiapp mode, swiping the separator when you want to go back to full screen. Many android apps already support this feature. This is the same thing, except with a larger screen & different panel arrangement.
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    The only specialized support it really needs has less to do with folding and more to do with toggling between two different screens without problems and while maintaining context, which they already seem to have nailed. Everything beyond that is just building on things that are already relevant for normal tablets, like multitasking.
Theodores 8y ago
It has status value that other phone style devices do not have. I am not into showing off with fancy watches, shoes and having to have the latest iPhone but I understand plenty of people are. Now there are lots of people that could benefit from this because you can have bigger letters on the screen. So it is far from a vanity product, like the latest and greatest iPhone it does have genuine utility. There is also a class of people who are vastly richer than everyone else, you see them drive in stupidly expensive cars. For this type of customer the $$$$ of this gadget is not a consideration. This gadget won't be 'displaying three apps at a time' any more than your desktop has three windows open side by side on it. It matters not about the keyboard, this is for consuming content with big type. Everyone has a regular phone already, this will sell well as soon as they can get the production volume up.
bootlooped 8y ago
Early products using cutting edge tech probably often seem gimmicky, but I think it would be short sided to dismiss the whole concept due to that. Hopefully enough early adopters buy this thing so that they keep iterating and improving on these. It's easy to see how a phone with a folding screen would be desirable to a lot of people... if it were thinner and cheaper. The first foldable phone is probably not going to be a great product, maybe not even the first 10 of them. In 5 years maybe they'll be great though.
rchaud 8y ago
> Why not wait and keep pushing the tech until it's worth releasing a beautiful product that can capture actual market share? I can only speak for myself, but I have been waiting. Since 2011, to be precise, which is when Sanyo and I believe Sony came out with 4.3 inch phones that folded out into 7-inch tablets. If there's any company that can invest properly in this form factor, it's Samsung, so I'm glad they're doing this. Certainly not going to buy it at that price point though!

drcode 8y ago

I agree this first-gen product is worth skipping, but given that many people spend probably 20% of their waking hours looking at their phone screen, it seems short sighted to me to argue that a 2x boost in screen size is merely a gimmick.

bookofjoe 8y ago
>given that many people spend probably 20% of their waking hours looking at their phone screen This sounds like punishment to me.

nicoburns 8y ago

I agree that this looks a bit early, but it also seems like a genuinely useful innovation if it can be pulled off. It reminds me a lot of the first MacBook Airs that sold to a niche market at a premium for a few years until the technology had advanced to the point that they could target a mainstream price point, at which point they became exceedingly popular. I could easily see the same thing happening here.

canada_dry 8y ago
> a genuinely useful innovation I agree. The writing is on the wall... people are ditching desktop computers in droves in favour of handheld/portable devices. Just as I usually do with any new V1.0 tech... I'm staying away, but am excited about future improvements!

jblow 8y ago

I want a phone that I can read books on, and spend quality time with, rather than reading crappy stuff like Twitter. I fully expect to buy a foldable (not sure which one) and would easily pay $2500+ for it. (It's not like I can buy laptops any more, since those are all garbage even when I pay $4000 for a supposedly high-end system, so I certainly have spare device money laying around!)

goatlover 8y ago
Kindles are cheap and light, if digital reading is your goal.
- djhworld 8y ago
  I often read PDF versions of books (especially technical books) or PDFs of academic papers etc I've never been able to view these properly on a kindle. Well, last time I tried anyway, is it better now?
  - jshevek 8y ago
    A foldable phone would be great for PDFs. I often want to flip between pages quickly, which Kindles still can't do.
  - YUMad 8y ago
    Sony DPT-RP1.
  - Shorel 8y ago
    Kobo Aura One seems to be the right size for your use case.
    - photojosh 8y ago
      Yep, I'm currently reading my EPUBs and PDFs on an ancient iPad 3. I researched a newer solution and settled on a Kobo Aura One (or perhaps the Forma which came out only recently) running the open-source KOReader [0], which is apparently much better than the built-in app on the Kobos. But I'm too cheap to upgrade while the iPad still works. [0] http://koreader.rocks http://koreader.rocks

jdietrich 8y ago

>No ecosystem. The ecosystem is Android. The vast majority of apps should work just fine, even on a display with an unusual aspect ratio.

maxxxxx 8y ago

I think it's a good experiment to learn what users really want and what problems may come up with the device.

_bxg1 8y ago

Android is working on OS-level support for folding displays. This one's early, and will have limited support from apps, but I don't think the category will die as a gimmick. It has genuine utility, it's just been a technological hurdle. Personally, I'll wait another couple years for Apple to refine it a bit. Also, the smartphone market has started saturating and device makers are clamoring for a feature - any feature - that will get people to buy new ones. This has resulted in lots of little useless features as they attempt to differentiate, but here we have an actually super useful feature which is costly to implement and will induce real gadget-envy for the first time in years. So there's going to be a gold rush behind it.

franciscojgo 8y ago
If they are working from the OS side that’s perfect. But I Im no way expecting to see anything but the most important apps have useful multi-app-in-screen interactions. Yeah YouTube, FB, Search, w/e but will that make it worth it? Sort of like the Touch Bar on MacBook Pros (which I have). Yeah it’s awesome to have on select apps like Photoshop, Safari, etc but it’s in no way so valuable as to build a whole product around - like this phone is trying to do. You can take the Touch Bar away from me at any moment and I won’t mind. Unless apps deeply integrate with this folding capability etc its just a gimmick that I expect will die pretty quick or remain a very niche product.
- jshevek 8y ago
  > useful multi-app-in-screen interactions. I use multiapp all the time on my current phone. I love it. Android makes it easy to move in and out of multiapp mode, swiping the separator when you want to go back to full screen. Many android apps already support this feature. This is the same thing, except with a larger screen & different panel arrangement.
- _bxg1 8y ago
  The only specialized support it really needs has less to do with folding and more to do with toggling between two different screens without problems and while maintaining context, which they already seem to have nailed. Everything beyond that is just building on things that are already relevant for normal tablets, like multitasking.

Theodores 8y ago

It has status value that other phone style devices do not have. I am not into showing off with fancy watches, shoes and having to have the latest iPhone but I understand plenty of people are. Now there are lots of people that could benefit from this because you can have bigger letters on the screen. So it is far from a vanity product, like the latest and greatest iPhone it does have genuine utility. There is also a class of people who are vastly richer than everyone else, you see them drive in stupidly expensive cars. For this type of customer the $$$$ of this gadget is not a consideration. This gadget won't be 'displaying three apps at a time' any more than your desktop has three windows open side by side on it. It matters not about the keyboard, this is for consuming content with big type. Everyone has a regular phone already, this will sell well as soon as they can get the production volume up.

bootlooped 8y ago

Early products using cutting edge tech probably often seem gimmicky, but I think it would be short sided to dismiss the whole concept due to that. Hopefully enough early adopters buy this thing so that they keep iterating and improving on these. It's easy to see how a phone with a folding screen would be desirable to a lot of people... if it were thinner and cheaper. The first foldable phone is probably not going to be a great product, maybe not even the first 10 of them. In 5 years maybe they'll be great though.

rchaud 8y ago

> Why not wait and keep pushing the tech until it's worth releasing a beautiful product that can capture actual market share? I can only speak for myself, but I have been waiting. Since 2011, to be precise, which is when Sanyo and I believe Sony came out with 4.3 inch phones that folded out into 7-inch tablets. If there's any company that can invest properly in this form factor, it's Samsung, so I'm glad they're doing this. Certainly not going to buy it at that price point though!