For those who are unfamiliar, this is a smartphone-sized device that folds in half. We recognized that we would listen that it was the phone we’d been waiting for since the Motorola Razr clam shell of 2004 – finally, we’d a gadget that would fit back into my pocket. Thirteen months later, the dream had come to an end. The “fold” line suddenly became drastically wider and turned silver a few days ago, the lower half of the screen turned green, the upper half became unresponsive, and an ominous black cloud began to grow across the screen. There’s woe tale of one customer whose Flip 4 hardly survived five hours after buying that phone. I’m not alone; there are plenty of individuals online who have had similar experiences. One Reddit user recently stated that their brand new gadget shattered after five hours.
Durability is critical to success
In 2019, foldable phones were debuted to much enthusiasm. There was much industry speculation that this would be the device that would resurrect a stagnant smartphone industry, create a new buzz around handsets, and persuade people to upgrade, despite data indicating that they were holding on to their phones for longer, uninspired by homogeneous black rectangles.
— Zoe Kleinman (@zsk) August 29, 2022 According to Samsung, the current iteration should be able to withstand 200,000 folds. I can’t verify that, and I’m a heavy phone user, but I doubt I opened mine that many times in the 13 months I owned it. As for the “folding revolution,” Samsung claims to have sold over 10 million foldable phones by 2021, and there is undoubtedly an internet following for the gadgets. According to consumer data provider Statista, Apple sold more than 49 million iPhones in only three months that same year. As a result, folding handsets remain a relatively minor part of the multibillion-dollar smartphone business.
