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Samsung has been working hard on their flexible bendable displays for the past several years. In fact they started teasing what a bendable foldable display might be capable of. It would allow for us to carry around a tablet which we could fold in half and use as a phone. Samsung is finally getting towards the end of development of this new technology according to an unnamed industry source.
Samsung will apparently begin their prototype production in the third quarter of this year. They will even produce thousands of units to seed out to partners and carriers for feedback. The technology was also secretly demoed to select partners behind closed doors at Mobile World Congress according to the same source. The foldable smartphones my be ready for mass production as early as 2018. Other companies in China are developing similar solutions for companies like Lenovo, Oppo, and Vivo. Lenovo has already showed off early prototypes of a foldable tablet and a smartphone that can wrap around your wrist.
Samsung looks to market foldable devices as being "a step above" traditional smartphones. This means we can expect a "luxury" markup on these devices in the beginning. This is pretty standard for new tech. Early adopters end up paying the highest prices, and as the process for manufacturing the tech gets cheaper the and more competition emerges the prices are drastically reduced. Are you interested in foldable tablets and phones? I could see myself carrying a foldable tablet that could also be used as a phone. An 8" tablet that could fold into a 4.5" phone would be pretty useful, but would you be willing to pay several hundred dollars for a two in one type of device like this?
via ETnews