To add to its most interesting portfolio of products, Samsung has announced the release of a foldable phone by the end of this year. There were murmurs about such a device being in the process of production; however there was no strong support of the speculation. The CEO of Samsung’s mobile division, DJ Koh talked about the plan with CNBC without letting out the details about its configuration.

Man’s capabilities are unimaginable and most exciting areas and technological world is the best evidence of the theory. The relentless advancement in technology seems to know “no boundaries” and Samsung is one apt representative of the cutting edge technology introduced in our lives.

DJ Koh said that it was time that they deliver on a foldable device after the analysis of company’s held consumer survey concluded that a market exists for that particular kind of handsets. Although not much was revealed about the futuristic gadget, a small insight was given about the key areas of focus to provide an ultimate experience. Koh was attending the 2018 Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) Berlin, the largest trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, where he was interviewed by CNBC.

The CEO clarifying about the usage of their next launch said that while the users can do most of their work in the foldable mode of their future phone, unfolding may be required in case of browsing or seeing something. Now the focus of the brand is to differentiate the benefits it would provide on its unfolded status from that of a tablet, since only that would justify its demand in the market. He asked that why would consumers in buying a stuff which is similar to tablet.

Adding about the core outlook of the Samsung, Koh said that Samsung believes that every device, every feature and every innovation should carry a meaningful message to the users. The company wants that when customers use their end products, they would go gaga over it and associate the goodness of the product with the brand.

There are various suppositions built around the upcoming phone of Samsung. Some say that the look of the phone would be similar to the earlier used flip phones that had a hinge or connector joining two parts of the phone.  Some rumours that spread in the past speculated that a flexible material could be used by Samsung to make a phone that allows its screen to bend on application of pressure. One of the reports of Wall Street Journal in July said that Samsung’s is geared to release a splashy phone, which would measure about 7 inches and would fold in half, costing nearly $1500.

The report also mentioned that the prototype of the device bears the code name “winner” and would be rolled out widely in 2019. It has been quite some time that the Samsung’s “mystery phone” has been making news for some never-before specifications they are conjectured to possess. The first prototype by the South Korean Giant was unveiled back in 2012 and then a concept advertisement in 2014 featured a smartphone that folded into a wallet-sized device.

DJ Koh hinted that the details about the entrails of the upcoming phone may be revealed in the Samsung Developer Conference at San Francisco in November, but did not give any indication about whether the full roll out or sale would happen soon after that.  The CEO rounded off that the development process of the quasi-miraculous smartphone is fairly ‘complicated’, yet the ace mobile makers have almost ‘concluded’ it.

Samsung’s much awaited move is a strategy to regenerate the loyalty that consumers felt for the brand, which saw a decline in sales year after year by 20% in the second quarter of 2018. This may be due to the waning demands in developed markets along with the stiff competition faced from Apple and Huawei in the high-end of the smartphone market.

--Deepak Kumar