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Samsung might not wait to sell foldable displays to OPPO and Xiaomi
- A new report states that it might not take long for Samsung foldable displays to hit the market for competitors.
- According to the report, Xiaomi and OPPO are already in talks to get the foldable display technology.
- Samsung is likely pushing the tech out quickly to build a market — and then make money on every sold device.
We know that Samsung is planning to release a foldable smartphone sometime in 2019, known for now as the Samsung Galaxy X. The foldable device has been a hot news topic for over a year now.
A new report from Korean site ETNews (via SamMobile) says that Samsung is already planning on selling its foldable display technology to competitors. Oppo and Xiaomi are called out in the report as already in talks with Samsung regarding the displays.
Usually, Samsung creates a new technology or design process and then incorporates it into its own product(s). After a suitable waiting period where it exclusively makes and sells the tech, it then opens the tech up for sale to other companies. However, with foldable displays, Samsung might move the process along at a much quicker pace.
The likely reason for this — if this is, in fact, the case — is that Samsung wants to create a dependent market. If Samsung releases a foldable phone and it does well, that’s great for Samsung. But if Samsung creates an entirely new smartphone market and most of its competitors use Samsung technology to create the devices in that market, that’s really great for Samsung. It then makes money from its own products and all the competitors’ products as well.
Of course, the trade-off here is that the Samsung Galaxy X — or whatever it ends up being called — won’t be the only foldable phone on the market for a long period of time, which will eat into Samsung’s sales. It would prove to be a risky move if the foldable phone market falls flat.
2019 is looking to be a big year for Samsung with the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Galaxy X, and the company’s first 5G phone.
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