Samsung does not want to lose every track in the mobile phone competition
August 15 news, technology media Letsgodigital exposed Samsung’s Z-shaped folding design patent.
The folding screen phone shown in the patent has two folding lines, and the screen is divided into three parts. The front and rear double folding can form the shape of the letter Z, so it is named “Z-Fold”.
Image Source: Letsgodigital Website
This patented device is equipped with a large screen, the frame is extremely narrow, and the size is similar to the flat panel in the unfolded state. After folding, it becomes the normal mobile phone size, and it is also a full screen.
It is reported that Samsung’s new patent was submitted to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) at the end of last year. It contains 23 design sketches and was approved at the end of May this year, but it was not until August 7th in Korean patent data. Includes publicity.
Samsung is at the forefront of the industry in folding equipment technology, but the road has been bumpy. In February 2019, Samsung announced the folding mobile phone Galaxy Fold, but after the screen shot incident in April, all Galaxy Fold test machines were recalled, until the end of July, Samsung officially announced the completion of the improvement of Galaxy Fold, expected September It will start to be listed on specific markets.
The Samsung incident was in front of Huawei. Huawei’s 5G folding screen mobile phone, Huawei Mate X, released in February this year is more cautious, or will be delayed until November.
Overview of the current market for foldable devices, there are three types of folding screen phones officially released in the world: Soft-wool, Samsung Galaxy Fold, and Huawei Mate X. OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers have followed suit, blew up the development of folding screen phones, but most of them only concept machines. Apple’s first foldable product will be available soon or next year, and this product is more likely to be an iPad than an iPhone.
From patent application to release, to vector production, folding screen mobile phones face many difficulties. The first is the two core difficulties in R&D: the screen itself and the hinge technology. Folding puts higher demands on the durability of the screen. Huawei spent three years on the hinge design of Mate X.
Second, the price is very challenging for consumers’ psychology. The Galaxy Fold starts at $1980.For RMB 13,300), Mate X is priced at 2,299 euros (about RMB 17,500).
In addition to the high folding thickness and large size, the Galaxy Fold has a thickness of 18mm after folding, which is double the thickness of Samsung’s new Note 10 (7.9mm). There is no data such as screen size and folding thickness in the new patent “Z-Fold” design sketch.
Galaxy Fold’s cloud has not been scattered, Samsung has already begun to develop new patents for folding technology, and the determination to compete for the folding screen mobile phone is undoubted. The reason is that in the market’s shrinking trend, the market will be boosted by products with new technologies, and secondly, there will be a psychological preemption.
Samsung’s high-end machine S10 series, which was mainly promoted in the first half of the year, was weak, and the overall profit of the mobile phone business was also declining. Although the current market for folding screen mobile phones is not large, the market for high-end machines will be promoted in the future. IHS Markit, a market research organization, estimates that shipments of folding mobile phones will be 2 million units in 2019 and 60 million units by 2022.
While major manufacturers are vying to lay out folding screen phones, Samsung may have suffered a bit as a forerunner, but will see a return in the future.