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Huawei could be releasing a Foldable Smartphone in 2018

by Felix Omondi
huawei foldable smartphone

The year 2016-2017 has been the year of the edge-to-edge display; smartphones that come with no bezels. For this year, you have seen that on Samsung Galaxy S8, and even Apple did the same with its iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X.

For a long time now, the South Korea tech giant Samsung has been teasing us it will be the pioneer of foldable smartphones. However, it appears, its Chinese counterpart, Huawei, might be way ahead of Samsung in making a foldable phone a reality. Pretty soon, the edge-to-edge display may not be the most significant cutting-edge feature on our smartphones anymore; in 2018 foldable smartphones will be the feature to die for!

As reported by CNet, Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group said they already have a workable prototype and are currently tweaking the design and innovation on the foldable smartphone.

We have two screens. But we still have a small gap [between the screens]. That’s not good, and we should get rid of that gap.”

If Huawei manages to pull this off before consumer electronics giants like Samsung and Apple do, the Chinese OEM will dig its roots deeper into the electronics devices market in terms of market share. Especially if its competitors take a long time before releasing their own version of foldable smartphones. Richard Yu certainly seems to be convinced that that is what is going to happen.

We will overtake them definitely. That’s our destiny. Maybe I’m not humble…but nobody can stop us.”

Before you dismiss Mr. Yu as being all huff-and-puff, take a moment and appreciate the vast amount of resources at Huawei’s disposal. Not to mention the market share it has gained in the recent years. The company is increasingly becoming a household name, especially in emerging economies. Although brands like Apple and Samsung are the household names in developed economies, Huawei stands a real chance of overthrowing them there as well. Globally, Huawei is the third-largest smartphone OEM in the world; no mean feat by any standards.

Samsung too is said to launch its bendable smartphone sometime next year. By the look of things, it is a race between Huawei and Samsung for the 2018 bendable smartphone, and before we conclude, ZTE has already launched a two-screened Atom M smartphone with a hinge.

ZTE’s foldable Atom M was far from perfect, but at least it gave the world a conceptual framework of what a foldable smartphone ought to look like.

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