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It blows my mind that companies have the resources to sink into "innovations" like this that are just so far out that they are sure to fail. The mere sight of t

It blows my mind that companies have the resources to sink into "innovations" like this that are just so far out that they are sure to fail. The mere sight of this stresses me out with how fragile it looks, and how clumsy it would be to use

quickthrower2 4y ago
How did that foldable phone craze a few years ago go? Are they still around?
- rowanG077 4y ago
  Ya they are still around. Getting steadily less expensive.
- asdajksah2123 4y ago
  Not just around, but growing rapidly. https://omdia.tech.informa.com/pr/2022-mar/omdia-foldable-smartphone-market-experiences-309-year-over-year-growth-in-2021 https://omdia.tech.informa.com/pr/2022-mar/omdia-foldable-sm...
- user_named 4y ago
  It's still going. I remember I t ied one in person, felt like a layer of tape on top of two displays.
  - flatiron 4y ago
    IIRC the first thing people did with those phones is rip the “tape” off just to realize their phone was now broken.
    - GekkePrutser 4y ago
      That was just the first Galaxy fold. On the later ones you can safely remove the screenprotector
- muro 4y ago
  They are around and actually very good. I got a flip 3 for my wife and I wish I got one myself, too. While not bad, the camera could be better - I like the pixel camera more.
asdajksah2123 4y ago
Why does it look any more fragile than an iPad, for example?
- o_m 4y ago
  An iPad have no moving mechanical parts, and are in an aluminum body that doesn't flex.
  - rasz 4y ago
    Iphone 6 says hi https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/270055-documents-reveal-apple-was-aware-of-iphone-6-bendgate-issues-before-launch https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/270055-documents-reveal-a... apple decided to use a paper sticker in place of metal shield, turns out whoever designed the phone in the first place used that metal shield as a structural element. No shield = bendy phone = Touch IC just so happen to be located at the bend and its balls pop off. You end up with https://www.lifewire.com/iphone-touch-disease-4120914 https://www.lifewire.com/iphone-touch-disease-4120914
- jsheard 4y ago
  We haven't solved the "bendable glass" problem yet, so foldable displays are made of soft plastic which is extremely easy to damage compared to the toughened glass you're accustomed to. You can put a permanent dent in them with your fingernail if you're not careful.
  - drcode 4y ago
    Had my Samsung fold3 a full year now, the foldable screen is surprisingly still as good as new
anony999 4y ago
The innovations in this area are incremental so you won't get the best out of it now. Investment into bending oled already went into smartphones so migrating it to laptops doest require signifiant capital. I would take this over a new set of "emoji innovation" and new OS skin/theme anytime. I must confess that I like bending/folding screens and "rolling screens" even more (i.e. for TVs). I would fold my iphone if I could(assuming that the screen would not get worse) and I would love to double the screensize of my macbook air or shink it into an ipad.
deltathreetwo 4y ago
The iphone was at one point in time the same innovation as this and at that time there were plenty of people like you calling it an "obvious" failure. At the time people were talking about how hard and clumsy it was to type on and getting your finger grease all over the screen of the phone.
nottorp 4y ago
No. If companies didn't sink resources into "innovations" like this you'd still travel around on faster horses. Let them burn some budget on crazy ideas, some will stick.

quickthrower2 4y ago

How did that foldable phone craze a few years ago go? Are they still around?

rowanG077 4y ago
Ya they are still around. Getting steadily less expensive.
asdajksah2123 4y ago
Not just around, but growing rapidly. https://omdia.tech.informa.com/pr/2022-mar/omdia-foldable-smartphone-market-experiences-309-year-over-year-growth-in-2021 https://omdia.tech.informa.com/pr/2022-mar/omdia-foldable-sm...
user_named 4y ago
It's still going. I remember I t ied one in person, felt like a layer of tape on top of two displays.
- flatiron 4y ago
  IIRC the first thing people did with those phones is rip the “tape” off just to realize their phone was now broken.
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    That was just the first Galaxy fold. On the later ones you can safely remove the screenprotector
muro 4y ago
They are around and actually very good. I got a flip 3 for my wife and I wish I got one myself, too. While not bad, the camera could be better - I like the pixel camera more.

asdajksah2123 4y ago

Why does it look any more fragile than an iPad, for example?

o_m 4y ago
An iPad have no moving mechanical parts, and are in an aluminum body that doesn't flex.
- rasz 4y ago
  Iphone 6 says hi https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/270055-documents-reveal-apple-was-aware-of-iphone-6-bendgate-issues-before-launch https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/270055-documents-reveal-a... apple decided to use a paper sticker in place of metal shield, turns out whoever designed the phone in the first place used that metal shield as a structural element. No shield = bendy phone = Touch IC just so happen to be located at the bend and its balls pop off. You end up with https://www.lifewire.com/iphone-touch-disease-4120914 https://www.lifewire.com/iphone-touch-disease-4120914
jsheard 4y ago
We haven't solved the "bendable glass" problem yet, so foldable displays are made of soft plastic which is extremely easy to damage compared to the toughened glass you're accustomed to. You can put a permanent dent in them with your fingernail if you're not careful.
- drcode 4y ago
  Had my Samsung fold3 a full year now, the foldable screen is surprisingly still as good as new

anony999 4y ago

The innovations in this area are incremental so you won't get the best out of it now. Investment into bending oled already went into smartphones so migrating it to laptops doest require signifiant capital. I would take this over a new set of "emoji innovation" and new OS skin/theme anytime. I must confess that I like bending/folding screens and "rolling screens" even more (i.e. for TVs). I would fold my iphone if I could(assuming that the screen would not get worse) and I would love to double the screensize of my macbook air or shink it into an ipad.

deltathreetwo 4y ago

The iphone was at one point in time the same innovation as this and at that time there were plenty of people like you calling it an "obvious" failure. At the time people were talking about how hard and clumsy it was to type on and getting your finger grease all over the screen of the phone.

nottorp 4y ago

No. If companies didn't sink resources into "innovations" like this you'd still travel around on faster horses. Let them burn some budget on crazy ideas, some will stick.