Can Samsung's Galaxy Fold revive the smartphone market?

Smartphone sales have seen a slump the past years but could recover soon as innovative devices roll out. With the lack of big upgrades in phones making a lot of users hold on to their devices quite longer, manufacturers are now doing more to stand out in the saturated market. Among the makers attempting to attract the market once more is Samsung, rolling out recently its first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold.

Samsung has been known to be working on flexible OLED displays ever since its demo at CES 2013. But this 2019, the South Korea tech giant finally revealed the fully functional device adopting its Infinity Flex display. When folded, the Galaxy Fold boasts a 4.6in screen with a 1960x840-pixel resolution. When opened, it transforms into a 7.3in tablet that delivers 2152x1536 pixels. The smartphone folds and unfolds without the issue of the screen degrading.

The company claims the phone is a unified device that can run the same app at a bigger estate when unfolded, as shown in the demo in Unpacked. It can also open three apps simultaneously. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm 7nm octa-core processor and 12GB RAM. It has two batteries on each side that amount to 4,380mAh of power, and comes with 512GB UFS 3.0 storage. For security, it adopts a fingerprint scanner on one side similar to the Galaxy S10e. The Fold is said to come in two variants: a 4G LTE and 5G version. It is expected to be available on April 26.

Next-gen smartphones today have multiple cameras, and the Galaxy Fold follows the trend, sporting six. At its rear is a 16MP ultrawide camera. It also has 12MP rear cameras for wide-angle and telephoto shots, two internal cameras, a 10MP selfie camera and an 8MP depth camera. There is also a 10MP selfie camera at the front.

As the Galaxy Fold makes history as Samsung's first foldable phone, it’s no surprise that this device comes with a hefty price: $1,980. Will buyers shift to foldable phones soon and will this innovation push demand up for smartphones?

Yes, consumerswill, but not that fast. Even if most flagship phones nowadays are within and above the $1,000 price range, a lot of users might not want to shell out a huge amount of money. Hence, in terms of demand, it may not only be Samsung's phone that is key. When demand spirals up could be when competitively-priced versions come out. We all know how smartphone trends spread like fire - makers get inspired to innovate and are always quick to adopt the latest craze, take bezel-less screens for instance which seems to still be new yet a lot of smartphones now have them.

This is where other smartphone brands come in, including Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi, and Asia manufacturers from Global Sources. These Asia manufacturers have proven in the past to be able to offer competitive prices for smartphones. The availability of more affordable smartphones can entice buyers to purchase new phones thus increasing the smartphone demand. With consumers seeing more innovative foldable smartphones and the rise of affordable units, importers can start sourcing similar mobile products to take advantage of the renewed interest in smartphones.