Epilogue
“[THE] PREVIOUS 10 YEARS, it was an era of the smartphone,” Samsung
CEO D.J. Koh told The Independent. “From this year, maybe a new era is
opening because of the emergence of the internet of things, 5G, AI, and all
these technologies mingling together. The new era is in front of us.”
For almost a decade, Samsung’s engineers toiled away at their secret
weapon for this new era, a smartphone that folds open, like a wallet, to
reveal a massive display, ideal for movies and artwork—and then folds shut
and fits in your pocket. Samsung went public with a prototype in May
- Then there were rumors of a release. Then leaks. Then patents and
company announcements.
“Samsung Files Patent for a Bizarre Folding Smartphone,” read an
Engadget headline back in November 2016.
For years, the industry buzz around the peculiar phone came in waves.
But the foldable phone didn’t materialize in the marketplace. “It is difficult
to talk about the date of the launch now....There are still durability issues
that we need to address,” D.J. Koh told the The Korea Herald in January
2018.
The smartphone wars were getting staid. With price tags close to
$1,000, Samsung and others were having a harder time selling new
smartphones that pretty much only offered marginal updates from the
previous model. The pressure was growing to release a novel and
groundbreaking device.
—
AS INNOVATION WAVERED, SAMSUNG also had to cope with the fallout of
scandal on the home front and the tumult of South Korean political winds.
After ousting President Park Geun-hye through impeachment, South