Well, at least the Samsung Galaxy Fold isn't exploding...yet

Let's look back briefly: For years, and that's no exaggeration, Samsung has made our mouths water with its flexible displays and what it will make possible. In February it finally happened, and the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world has conjured its Galaxy Fold out of its hat. It should be start of a new era, but not all went according to plan - and the era will perhaps be quite short.

Problems after only two days

The first test subjects had the Galaxy Fold in their hands for just two days, when the problems began, precisely on the component that was being viewed particularly critically: the display. This showed first signs of failure and broke down in more than a handful of journalists after two or three days. Around ten percent of review devices in the USA was affected - a disaster for Samsung.

Only consistently and correctly to postpone the date for the Galaxy Fold. Samsung has opted for a very tight schedule and only gave the Galaxy Fold to the selected press shortly before the start. At the MWC the Galaxy Fold was still guarded like the crown jewels - touching it was strictly forbidden! If then something goes wrong with the first testers, there is no more time to react.

And now the Koreans have the salad. The Galaxy Fold will be tested even more intensively and will then be launched on the market in a few weeks - says Samsung. The development of this smartphone took more than three years, in the test the pre-series devices were opened and closed 200,000 times, says Samsung, and obviously these problems did not occur. 

The debacle will certainly not reach the dimensions of the history of the Galaxy Note 7 in absolute numbers, but the target market for the Fold is much too small and the price much too high. But the image damage for Samsung, long known as the most technically advanced smartphone manufacturer, is immense.

• Huawei Mate X vs Samsung Galaxy Fold: first foldable smartphones in comparison

Even the competition, which also wants to push folding smartphones into the market, is unlikely to benefit from the Galaxy fold debacle. Of course it is possible that the Huawei Mate X doesn't have such problems, even if the danger seems even greater here due to the external display. But the problems of the Galaxy Fold also affect the folding smartphones of other manufacturers. Many customers will think: if Samsung can't do this, the others can't either.

Managers will smile, but developers will sweat

I can imagine that one or the other manager at Huawei or Xiaomi had to smile a little when he heard about the Galaxy Fold disaster. I suspect, however, that the engineers in charge are more likely to have sweat beads on their foreheads and think to themselves: "hopefully this won't happen to us"

Samsung must now make every effort to restore the Galaxy Fold's reputation and that will be hard enough. The market will presumably accept a delay. If Samsung can't handle the problems with the Galaxy Fold, either others will take the lead in this area or the time of the folding smartphones will end faster than expected. Then it's back to boredom again. After all, it didn't explode.

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What do you think will become of the Samsung Galaxy Fold?