Can folding phones REALLY take off?: NOT SIMPLE

You may be disappointed that Apple, the supposed pioneer and driver of innovation, did not release a folding iPhone. It wasn't expected by people in the tech leaks industry. Although there are rumours that Apple is experimenting with a folding iPhone and has built several prototypes, there is no current information about releasing foldable iPhones before 2024. It seems that like politics, 2024 is going to be a big year for the iPhone. The concept and construction of foldable are not as simple as it seems on paper. Firstly, the screen is no longer glass and is instead made of a different kind of material that required a lot of engineering and R&D to get right.

That's the reason that Samsung Fold 1 was a massive failure as there were problems with the folding screen - blacking out of pixels, development of crack crease along the entire height of the phone, hinge catching water and dust. It was a disaster and the idea of foldable subsequently took a great hit. People were already apprehensive about a gorilla glass victus phone that folds into half and the problems only exasperated those grave concerns. Samsung knew that its image and reliance have taken a huge hit and that's why it took a long enough time to launch the Fold 2 which ironed out most of the difficulties that people were facing with the first generation.

They were successfully able to set things right while introducing a punch hole camera that looked futuristic unlike the blob on the top corner in the first gen Fold. There are currently a lot of Chinese companies also selling Foldables like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Huawei but it's only Samsung that has been successful and is currently the front runner in the foldable race by a very long shot. But you should consider that foldable phones are still a very niche segment accessible only to the well-off as they account for less than 1% of all phone sales not only in India but even in developed countries and markets like the US and Europe.

Foldable phones are also accompanied by Flip and Rolling phones but they aren't practical and are bought more for the cool factor rather than any real utilitarian use. Foldable phones still offer a lot of utility as they come with expansive 7-inch + screens that can be folded and carried around like a normal phone. It's like having an iPad Mini in your jeans pocket which is fascinating to think about and something that may have seemed completely impossible just 5 years ago. The main problem with Foldables is their expensive and steep sticker price of at least 1500$ which is just an outrageous amount of money, to begin with, especially to spend on a phone in a world where budget phones are becoming increasingly capable. As MKBHD put it "good phones may not be getting cheap but cheap phones are getting good".

Although the price of the Fold 4 has trickled down since the original Fold, it still costs a bomb for 99.5% of the people. Even if you can afford it, it sometimes just does not make sense. Unless the phone price can come down another 500-700$, don't expect people to pull out a fold or flip from their (deep) pockets anytime soon. It is expected that the tech would require another 3-5 years to reach this level and another 3 years after that is when we can see foldable become mainstream and featuring in mid-range and budget ranges. Thanks to Samsung's aggressive marketing on billboards, print media and at sports games, the number of foldable being sold is increasing every year.

Samsung claims to have sold over 10 million folding phones in 2021. Samsung is also very interested in the market and is optimistic about the growth opportunities and that's why they release new Fold and Flip phones each year just like the S series phones. Speaking of the S phones, they are still very superior to the Folds and Flips of this world as they come with better hardware and software optimisation. The cameras, batteries and display are all sharper, bigger and brighter on the S series respectively despite being almost 50% of the cost of the Fold. This remains a monumental challenge that needs to be overcome because, in the Android world where specs are everything, a phone can't sell well if it's expensive but still does not offer as much, if not more, bang for the buck as the cheaper counterpart.

Like every single time, people anticipate that the sector would only take off if and when Apple steps into the game because that would other tech giants on alert mode and they would aggressively race to launch their models of foldable and similar-looking phones. This would not be unprecedented as we have witnessed this rather powerful domino effect went the iPhone X was released and everyone started releasing notch display phones within a month of the iPhone X.

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JAI HIND

The name says it all.

I have been associated with an non-profit organization called Tarumitra. It has several subsidiaries such as Footprint and mainly has operations in the Indian state of Bihar. Tarumitra's main efforts are in the fields of afforestation. Here's Darshan sir, founder and operational manager of Tarumitra, to tell you more about the organization.

प्रेस रिपोर्ट

सीमांत मुख्यालय सशस्त्र सीमा बल,पटना एवं कमांडेंट 40 वीं वाहिनी सशस्त्र सीमा बल, पटना के दिशा निर्देश में दिनांक 14.09.2022 को आई.आई.टी, पटना में वृक्षारोपण कार्यक्रम का आयोजन किया गया l इस अभियान में आई.आई.टी,पटना के निदेशक प्रोफेसर टी.एन. सिंह तथा तरुमित्र आश्रम के स्वयंसेवी समन्वयक श्री एस. दर्शन उपस्थित थे l वृक्षारोपण अभियान के दौरान सीमांत मुख्यालय सशस्त्र सीमा बल,पटना एवं 40 वीं वाहिनी द्वारा आई.आई.टी कैंपस में लगभग 3000 पौधारोपण किया गया l इस दौरान श्री के. सी. विक्रम, उप महानिरीक्षक , सीमान्त मुख्यालय सशस्त्र सीमा बल, पटना द्वारा उपस्थित सभी शिक्षक, एन.जी.ओ, छात्र-छात्राओ को वृक्षारोपण हेतु प्रोत्साहित किया तथा आने वाले पीढ़ी और नवयुवकों को अपने विचार के माध्यम से वृक्षारोपण हेतु जागरूक किया और वृक्षारोपण से होने वाले लाभ से अवगत कराया गया, जैसे की पर्यावरण को प्रदुषण मुक्त , ग्लोबल वार्मिंग समस्या से छुटकारा, संतुलित पर्यावरण को बनाये रखना इत्यादीl 40वीं वाहिनी द्वारा हर साल वृक्षारोपण अभियान चलाया जाता है और अपने आस पास के इलाको में पौधे लगाए जाते है l इस कार्यक्रम के दौरान श्रीमती सुवर्णा सजवाण, कमांडेंट, 40 वीं वाहिनी , अजित सिंह , उप-कमांडेंट, शशि प्रकाश, उप-कमांडेंट, आनंद कुमार, उप-कमांडेंट (सीमान्त मुख्यालय पटना ) और 40वीं वाहिनी के अन्य बलकर्मी उपस्थित थे l