Foldable phone hits a few snags
Samsung staked its reputation on the Galaxy Fold – maybe it should have waited a bit longer, writes Matthew Field.
The grand unveiling of the US$2000 (NZ$2996) Galaxy Fold in February was supposed to be a moment of triumph for Samsung.
The South Korean company had edged out its major rival Huawei in the race to launch the first massproduced foldable smartphone and early reaction was full of gushing praise.
‘‘Slim, slick and radically different,’’ said one review in a United States magazine. ‘‘One of the most exciting devices we’ve seen,’’ said another.
Eager to share its invention with the world, Samsung set an ambitious date of April 26 for preorder sales and May 3 for in-store launches.
But just over a week before sales were due to begin, disaster struck. At least five devices sent to little more than a dozen journalists and reviewers broke after just two days of use.
Samsung has this week been forced to delay the Fold launch indefinitely. The smartphone, designed to usher in a new era of devices, now risks becoming the
company’s biggest reputational gaffe since its Note 7 phone began exploding in 2016.
‘‘It is very unfortunate, particularly in light of the problems with the Note 7,’’ said Ben Wood, research chief at analyst firm CCS Insight. ‘‘Samsung will have moved mountains to get this device out quickly, to be the first to market ahead of rivals. That is always a delicate balancing act.’’
The Fold had begun life as a display panel project at Samsung around 2011. It wanted to use its experience in screen technology to build an original product that would end criticism, led by Apple, that it was a technology adopter rather than an innovator.
Journalists were given a first hands-on with the Galaxy Fold last week. The new phones are unusual in that they feature two screens that fold outwards like a book. There is a smaller 4.6-inch screen on its outer side and when unfolded it has a tablet-like 7.3-inch display.
By April 17, less than two days after review units had been handed over to reporters, Dieter Bohn, executive editor of tech website The Verge, posted a story detailing an unusual bulge that had appeared under the screen of his Fold.
‘‘My best guess is that it’s a piece of debris,’’ Bohn said. ‘‘It’s possible that it’s something else, though, like the hinge itself on a defective unit pressing up on the screen.’’
Hours later, the screen panel had been damaged enough by the piece of debris pressing up from the hinge that a visible line appeared to split the screen.
Any damage to the hinge is particularly worrying for Samsung, which waxed lyrical about how it tested the folding mechanism 200,000 times.
Samsung portfolio director Matt Nottel told reporters at their preview of the phone that its ‘‘dual virtual axis hinge’’ underwent ‘‘hundreds of prototypes’’ for ‘‘something that was smooth and premium’’.
But that was just the start of its problems. Samsung Fold units, it turned out, included a thin film screen across the top of the folding display. This screen was similar to the kinds of screen protectors that are attached to most smartphones to stop scratches on the display. When reviewers tried to remove the film, their phone screens blacked out and stopped working. Samsung sent replacement phones.
Reviewers said they had a new version of the Fold in their hands before Samsung had offered an official comment on the breakages.
By last Thursday, Samsung said it was investigating the problems. The launch, a spokesman said, remained April 26. But the clock was ticking.
‘‘This crisis is damaging their reputation as a technology innovator,’’ said Ian Kirby, managing director at public relations firm MHP Communications.
By Sunday, product launch events in Hong Kong and China were abruptly cancelled. The first reviews over the weekend were equally devastating.
Even without the broken screen, other problems emerged, such as the screen ‘‘jelly scrolling’’, with the unfolded sides appearing to move out of sequence. Other reviewers reported small indents and marks on the screen.
Late on Monday, Samsung confirmed it would be halting its launch plans.
Despite its rapid response, critics raised questions over Samsung’s internal processes. ‘‘Clearly they can’t afford to have another embarrassing Note 7-like incident, lest they build up a reputation for releasing unreliable products,’’ said Bryan Ma, vicepresident of devices at IDC.
The phone’s problems won’t have the same financial impact as the Note 7 given the small scale of production. Samsung plans to sell around one million Folds this year, less than half of 1 per cent of its total annual sales.
But will this damage Samsung in the long term?
Since the Note 7 battery debacle, Samsung has remained on the spot as the world’s most prolific seller of smartphones against increasing competition from Chinese rivals, although it has remained the dominant player despite recent cuts to profits.
The handset damage, at least, to the new Fold units does not appear to be universal, according to CCS Insight’s Wood: ‘‘I have spoken to a number of people inside networks who say they have not had problems.’’
Samsung still has time to solve the issue. Its main rival in foldable phones, Huawei, is not expected to start selling its own folding phone, the Mate X, until at least June.
‘‘On the bright side, we have an opportunity to nail down this issue and fix it before selling the phones to a massive audience, so they won’t have the same complaints,’’ a Samsung source told Reuters.
– The Telegraph, London