Why Huawei wants to beat Samsung to the first folding smartphone

Screengrab from Huawei ad.

The following article is an adapted translation of this piece by Wang Xinxi, published on Sina Tech.

The battle for the first foldable phone is heating up. Reports from CNET suggest Samsung intends to launch a foldable smartphone in early 2019, but a report from Korean outlet ETNews suggests Huawei aims to beat the Korean giant to market with a folding phone slated to launch as early as November. In fact, Huawei consumer business group CEO Richard Yu told CNET that the company already had a working prototype in 2017, and was just focused on optimizing it.

But Samsung still wants to win.

At the launch event for the Galaxy Note 9 earlier this month, Samsung CEO DJ Koh told reporters that they “wouldn’t make the world wait too long” before launching a folding smartphone. The brand doesn’t want to lose out on the bragging rights that come with being the “first” to go folding.

Scarlett Johansson flogs phones in Huawei ad. Gif by Tech in Asia.

Outside of the obvious question of the screen itself, the difficulty in making a folding phone lies in adapting all of the internal components to a folding design. Internal components including the circuit board may need to be able to accept as much as a 180-degree bend happening repeatedly without any breaking, cracking, or other unintended effects. Another potential problem is that the changed internal space may necessitate a more difficult and expensive manufacturing process.

Samsung’s answer to this, based on patent filings, is two separate screens and phone bodies connected by a vertical “fold” hinge and sophisticated software that allows the screens to detect the hinge bend and adapt the content they’re displaying appropriately. The downside of this is that the hinge necessitates a small crack between the two bodies when fully folded. But there are also reports suggesting that Samsung is working on other styles of folding phone, and it’s not clear what the final product will look like.

What Huawei’s entry into the market will look like is, similarly, still a mystery, but here’s Samsung patent for a “foldable display device” filed with the USPTO this August:

Image credit: USPTO

Why folding?

It’s clear that both Samsung and Huawei are interested in pursuing being the first to market with folding smartphones despite the technical challenges. Why?

First, because if they do prove to be feasible and find market success, other phone makers are going to want in, and being first to market gives the leader a comparatively longer window to work with and establish itself as a leader in the folding phone technology. This could be valuable both in terms of branding and in terms of industry positioning, as other phone makers may look to license technology from the apparent market leader.

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