Samsung’s Galaxy Fold was one of the first smartphones to feature a foldable display.
It was revealed to the public back in February, and there was a lot of excitement surrounding
the product since it featured a dramatically different form factor when compared to traditional
smartphones.
But concerns were raised following its announcement since Samsung didn’t let anyone demo the
product for themselves, and the Fold was featured very briefly, receiving just three minutes
and twenty seconds of stage time.
This led many people to believe Samsung had something to hide about the product, or that
it hadn’t yet been fully developed.
Which was concerning considering its was supposed to launch just two months later at a price
of two thousand dollars.
So did customers have anything to worry about?
Or were suspicious about the Galaxy Fold an overreaction?
Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to find out.
This is Greg with Apple Explained, and I want to thank Backblaze for sponsoring this video.
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Now I want to begin by clarifying that I don’t believe the Galaxy Fold is a failed product.
I mean, it hasn’t even gone on sale yet, so no one knows what kind of commercial success
it’ll have.
But I do believe Samsung completely failed at launching the product successfully, and
here’s why.
I already mentioned that the Galaxy Fold’s introduction left a lot to be desired, but
I didn’t fault Samsung for that.
After all, the original iPhone was introduced in a similar way.
No one was allowed to demo it after the keynote, and the product was very much still in development.
That’s why Steve Jobs had to flip through a booklet guiding him through the iPhone’s
stage demo.
It was called the “golden path,” and deviating from it would reveal software bugs that the
engineering team hadn’t yet ironed out.
But you have to consider that Apple was forced to introduce the iPhone three months earlier
than they wanted due to the process of receiving FCC approval.
If Apple didn’t introduce the iPhone three months early, the FCC would’ve revealed
the product for them.
But all things considered, it isn’t unusual for companies to announce products before
they’re fully developed.
And that was clearly the case with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.
But if that wasn’t the problem, then what was?
Well, it all started when Samsung sent out media units to be reviewed by various news
outlets, blogs, and youtubers as a way to drum up hype and gain attention before the
products release.
And at first things appeared to be going smoothly, with reviewers writing articles and posting
videos about the product and their initial reactions, but just two days later several
review units began to malfunction.
And that’s when things went south.
Steve Kovach of CNBC, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Marques Brownlee, and Dieter Bohn of The Verge
all had their Galaxy Fold units break after just a day or two of testing.
So let’s take a look at what exactly happened to each of these devices.
Kovach posted this video to Twitter which shows the left display panel flickering, Gurman
posted these photos which showed a large blacked-out portion of the display that didn’t function
at all and got progressively worse.
Brownlee had his entire display black out, and Bohn had a bulge appear on the seam of
his screen which caused the OLED panel to break.
Now if you’re Samsung, this is one of the worst case scenarios to be in.
They’ve spent years developing foldable display technology and integrating it into
a mass-production consumer device.
They drummed up attention for the product by demoing it on stage, announcing a release
date of April 26th, and deploying a media campaign by sending out units for people to
test.
But just ten days before the Galaxy Fold was scheduled to go on sale, multiple reviewers
experienced serious problems with their units.
Which caused thousands of customers to cancel their Galaxy Fold preorders and vindicated
critics who were suspicious of the product all along.
And to make matters even worse, this was all happening to a company who already suffered
a PR nightmare just a few years ago after a worldwide recall of their Galaxy Note 7
due to exploding batteries.
And although every tech company has had their share of faulty products, Samsung is the only
company to have a device banned from airplanes by the US Department of Transportation.
So you can imagine how Samsung must’ve felt after hearing about its Galaxy Fold suffering
from serious malfunctions.
They quickly issued a public statement, saying, “A limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples
were provided to media for review.
We have received a few reports regarding the main display on the samples provided.
We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter.
Separately, a few reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing
damage to the screen.
The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the
display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches.
Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage.
We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers.”
Now that was the full statement and I want to break down it down piece by piece, because
Samsung actually managed to put most of the blame on reviewers rather than being honest
about their own products faults.
Notice how they framed the situation by avoiding any negative terminology until it could be
associated with the reviewers.
Samsung said they would “determine the cause of the matter,” rather than figuring out
why their smartphone broke after just two days of use.
Then immediately after that sentence, they turn it around on the reviewers by saying,
"a few reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing damage to
the screen.”
Which makes it sound like the reviewers did something wrong to cause the Galaxy Fold to
break, but this isn’t entirely true.
Because two of the broken units still had their protective top layer intact.
Not to mention the top layer of one review unit began to peel off on its own after just
days of use.
So if Samsung had issued a fair and honest statement, it would have read something like,
“Our engineering team completely overlooked a flaw in the Galaxy Fold’s main display.
We will investigate the damaged units in person to ensure the cause of these problems are
identified and solved.
Samsung customers expect us to deliver world-class hardware and we will not release the Galaxy
Fold until it lives up to that standard.”
But instead, they differed blame and threw their reviewers under the bus in a very dishonest
way.
And if that weren’t enough, Samsung requested that iFixit remove its teardown of the Galaxy
Fold after they suspected the device provided insufficient protection from debris damaging
the screen.
iFixit wasn’t under any legal obligation to remove the teardown, but they did so out
of courtesy to Samsung.
And what bothers me most about this situation is that if iFixit could tell the display wasn’t
adequately protected from debris, why couldn’t Samsung identify this problem themselves while
the product was in development?
Now eventually Samsung announced that the Galaxy Fold would be indefinitely delayed
and all media units had to be returned.
This began a period of speculation that continues today.
Will Samsung be able to solve the Fold’s serious problems?
If so, how long would it take?
Well, there have been no official statements from the company itself, but according to
a recent report from Yonhap News Agency, Samsung has apparently fixed both issues with the
device.
First, the protective top layer of film will be tucked underneath the display bezels, that
way users won’t be tempted to peel it off.
Second, the hinge mechanism has been redesigned with smaller openings to prevent debris from
falling inside and getting wedged behind the display.
And while these solutions may help, I’m not sure that they’re foolproof.
It sounds very similar to Apple’s butterfly keyboard solution.
In order to prevent debris from entering the key, a protective silicon membrane was added.
Which didn’t actually eliminate key failure but rather delayed it.
And considering Samsung has only been working on these fixes for about three weeks, it’s
hard to believe they’ve implemented real fixes rather than applied a couple bandaids.
But one thing appears certain, Samsung is definitely going to release the Galaxy Fold
it’s just a matter of when.
And if this alleged leaked AT&T email is to be believed, the Fold could be released as
soon as June 13th.
Now like I said earlier in the video, I don’t think the Galaxy Fold will be a failed product.
I think it’s pioneering some important technology that’ll begin a new era for smartphones.
But that technology is still in its early stages of development, and the Galaxy Fold
is clear evidence of this.
Even if its main display performed flawlessly, the device has some serious compromises.
It’s heavy, thick, and awkward to use as a smartphone.
The front display is small with comically large bezels, and the main display has an
unsightly seam that’s even less enjoyable to touch.
Reviewers have noted jelly scrolling, where one side of the display lags behind the other,
and even color temperature differences between the display’s left and right side.
And I think all of this reveals Samsungs biggest flaw as a company, and that is their obsession
with being first to market, even if it means releasing an unpolished product.
They clearly fell victim to this with the Galaxy Fold, but also with the Galaxy Gear
smartwatch in 2013.
Samsung knew Apple was working on a smartwatch, and they wanted to beat them to market.
The problem was the first generation Galaxy Gear watch was an objectively awful product.
Receiving poor critical reception and achieving very little sales success.
With 30% of Best Buy customers eventually returning it.
And all that could have been prevented if Samsung had just spent a couple more years
developing the Galaxy Gear’s technology, that way they would’ve ended up with a much
higher quality product.
Now that may not be the case with their Galaxy Fold, but things are certainly off to a rocky
start.
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Alright guys thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.