There are a bunch of companies out there making foldable phones, and it seems that more are hopping on this bandwagon. It’s the future, what do you expect!? Among them, Samsung is the top dog. Why is this, though? What force is keeping the Galaxy Z foldables afloat? In short, it’s the Samsung fanboys.
Now, this isn’t a hit piece on Samsung, its fans, or its products. It makes great products. Here at AH, we review Sammy’s phones and tablets highly. Samsung spent four generations honing the design of its foldable phones. It survived the dog days of early foldable growing pains and it continues to pour millions of R&D bucks into its foldable phones.
We also can’t forget that Samsung sells its phones in a lot of markets. Most other foldable phone manufacturers are Chinese, and they’re pretty wary about entering the US market for understandable reasons. Also, Google is precious about which markets to distribute its first-gen foldable. So, we can’t say there’s no reason for these phones to sell.
But, what’s keeping the Galaxy foldables afloat?
The above-mentioned are reasons for the phones to sell, but they’re not what’s keeping the series afloat. Other phones have a lot of R&D put into them, are refined, and are available in many markets. Some sell well while others barely break even. Oftentimes, it’s not the hardware that makes a phone sell, it’s how that hardware hypnotizes the user.
In this case, we’re talking about the diehard Samsung fans. Not the “I think Samsung makes high-quality products” kind; we’re talking about the “Samsung does no wrong! It’s the best company in the world!!” kind. We’re talking about the people who will take any compromise that Samsung makes and won’t fault it or ask the company to do better.
Other companies have left Samsung in the dust
Samsung has been a driving force in the foldable phone market since day one when only it and Huawei dared to build one. Now, much smaller companies like OnePlus are making their own foldable phones. However, these other companies have left Samsung in the dust when it comes to foldable design. Other companies like Oppo and Vivo are creating more exciting and accessible foldable phones than what we’re getting from Samsung.
People, since day one, have dragged Samsung for making a foldable phone that’s so slender. When folded- in its “candy bar” mode- the phone almost has the exact dimensions of an actual candy bar. The display is so thin that you almost always have to open it to get work done. That defeats the purpose of having a notebook foldable in the first place. You know, where it’s both a phone and a tablet.
Oppo defined a new era in foldable phone technology when it unveiled the Oppo Find N in 2021. This phone looked like someone took a Galaxy Foldable and squished it. And, it worked! The wider form factor let people know that they could still use their phones when closed. No matter how impressive the phone is when unfolded, you should still be able to use it as a phone.
Now, other companies have emulated that idea and left Samsung’s form factor behind. We can honestly say that Oppo pushed the foldable phone market forward. It’s just sad that Samsung hasn’t gotten with the program.
Let’s talk about exciting changes… or lack thereof
This is a trend that we’re seeing more with Samsung phones. Back in the day, Samsung was the breath of fresh air we needed after every iPhone launch. Apple would launch a phone that was a carbon copy of the iteration before it, but Samsung would debut a phone with some sort of new “wow” factor, radical new design, and a boatload of new features. We always expected Samsung to bring the “Next big thing”, and it did.
Now, its foldable phones show much the opposite. Each iteration of the company’s foldable phones offers nothing more than minor tweaks, the latest Snapdragon chip, and maybe some boosted specs. Sure, the Z Fold 5 is expected to have IP68 water and dust resistance to protect it from sand, but who’s taking their $1800 phone to the beach?
What else is there to make each generation a reasonable upgrade over the last? I will say this, with those first couple of generations of foldables, Samsung did a lot in terms of making them more durable. So, that’s something that I tip my hat to the company for.
But, we’re past the days when grains of sand and dust ruined phones. Foldable phones from much smaller companies, with far fewer resources and R&B bucks, are pushing their foldable phones with no durability issues. Honor, the underdog that used to be on Huawei’s leash, managed to shrink the number of hinge components to just four with its foldable. That greatly reduces the number of moving parts and the chance of ingress. Samsung can’t bank on the durability aspect anymore to keep the Galaxy foldables afloat.
A pedestal built by the fans
With all that said, Samsung is going to outsell the competition in the foldable market when it launches. Why? Well, those diehard Samsung fans. Other companies are showing that they’re taking the foldable market seriously. They’re adding features, developing amazing designs, and changing those designs. Samsung is sticking its users with basically the same phone they got last year with some updated specs. And they’re okay with that!
They’ll happily pay the $1800 for the same experience they paid $1800 for last year or two years ago. This gives Samsung free reign to repackage and serve the same experience. Other companies like Honor, Motorola, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. have to put a huge focus on making their next foldable phone leagues better than their last. They have to bring that “wow” factor, that excitement to make people part with over $1000. And, we’ve seen some amazing results of that.
Meanwhile, Samsung can comfortably stand by and pump out phones with the same design it’s had for generations. Does that sound familiar? If so, then you’ve seen what Apple does. The company has successfully pushed phones with the same design since the iPhone 11. And you know what, people are still eating it up.
This is the same thing that we’re seeing with the Galaxy foldables. They sit on a pedestal, a pedestal built by the fans, and there’s no motivation to innovate. With every new Samsung product to hit the shelves, the company knows that it has a fanbase built-in that will gladly pay their arms, legs, and first-born children for.
The Apple mentality
This points to a larger issue in the tech industry. Apple seemed to have struck a magical formula among its fans. The company has the ability to sell the same product year-over-year with no opposition from its fans. Try to tell the difference between the iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14. Try to do the same with MacBooks, iPads, etc. You’ll have an easier time learning quantum physics. Yet, Apple still eats up more than half of the global smartphone shipments each year.
I’m sorry to say that the prodigal child Samsung is becoming the same way. Its latest Galaxy S phones show little to no change over previous iterations, and it’s worse for its tablets. It’s selling these phones at exorbitant prices when you can get equally capable devices for hundreds less. Yet, it’s still the highest-selling Android OEM on the planet. Samsung has adopted the Apple mentality, and it shows with its foldable phones. The only question is, how long can the company keep this up before it starts to see fatigue? This can only keep the Galaxy foldables afloat for so long.
2023-07-05 15:07:52