Samsung has unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen that breaks new ground in a market that has been stuck in an innovative funk, but its steep price has at least one analyst saying it will only appeal to “a limited crowd.”
The phone announced Wednesday in San Francisco will be called the Galaxy Fold and will sell for $1,980 US when it is released April 26.
Consumers willing to pay that hefty price will get a device that can unfold like a wallet so it can work like a traditional smartphone with a 4.6 inch (12 cm) screen or morph into something more like a mini-tablet with a 7.3 inch (19 cm) screen.
When fully unfolded, the device will be able to simultaneously run three different apps on the screen.
Ten years after the first Galaxy, we didn’t just change the shape of the phone, we changed the shape of tomorrow. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/GalaxyFold?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#GalaxyFold</a><br>Learn more: <a href=”https://t.co/gYYGF4ZvdJ”>https://t.co/gYYGF4ZvdJ</a> <a href=”https://t.co/C8s0Jxdhkz”>pic.twitter.com/C8s0Jxdhkz</a>
—@SamsungMobile
One analyst says users will welcome the larger display on Samsung’s upcoming foldable phone — but it will be more of a “status symbol” while prices are high.
Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy calls the Fold a “super premium” niche product. He believes it will sell out among the limited crowd.
Samsung is hoping the Galaxy Fold will spur more people to upgrade their phones and reverse a recent slump that saw its smartphone sales fall eight per cent last year.
The Galaxy Fold is one of five new models announced Wednesday, the 10th anniversary of the company’s first smartphone. The other four are cheaper.
David McQueen, research director at ABI Research, says Samsung now has a selection of prices and functions that “should appeal to a much wider range of consumers.”
The Galaxy S10 phones also unveiled Wednesday boast fancy cameras, sleek screens spanning the front of the devices and at least 128 gigabytes of storage.