1) Do you watch more than ten hours of streaming media on the go a week?
Streaming media is the biggest reason to switch to one of the foldable phones thanks to the increased screen size. If you’re a commuter or you watch a lot of movies, these are designed to make you salivate. The average screentime is ten hours for Netflix per week or five hours if you subscribe to Amazon or Hulu [CNBC/GBH Insights]. As 5G rolls out expect huge pushes from all side to watch more video and stream more content than ever before.
2) Are you ok with being a guinea pig?
Foldable phones have a lot of unknowns; performance, screen durability, battery life and other issues. While the promise is good (multiple batteries, fast charging, we all know there are realities with these issues). If you are ok being the early testers for this category, head to the next question. If you don’t, think carefully about how these issues could impact your life.
3) Does spending $2000 on a phone seem cheap to you?
The other reason is, of course, that you have too much money and need a place to spend it. Go forth and support the economy.
In reality, most consumers will simply want to try it out or want a bigger phone. The issue for foldable phones is whether they are as easy to use at tablets or will concessions needs to be made. There are already rumblings of creases being visible which will spoil any content shown on it. Are phones destined to be foldable? Not at all. Dual-screen phones have not seen the traction many thought they would and with all the ‘screens are bad’ rhetoric bouncing around the various echo chambers, a push for these to become mainstream will take time and a lot of ad-dollars. Most people will likely plump for a bigger single-screen phone like the iPhone XS Max thanks to the current price-point and lack of killer use case for foldable ones.
I think the concept of a foldable phone is very intriguing. I spend a decent amount of time each day streaming video on my phone and the increased screen size does seem appealing. Other than the price, I think one of the main concerns is the durability of the foldable phones. How are they going to be protected from snapping or cracking the screen? Even though I tend to take care of my devices, this would still be a major drawback for me. And while the price does seem high, I have become increasingly willing to pay more for phones because of the increasing impact they have on my life. I use my phone for so many things each day that it might be worth spending $2,000 to improve my day-to-day experience. I think the questions you posed really helped me think about whether or not I would want a foldable phone and, at this point, I am very interested in trying one.
The new folding smartphones from Samsung and Huawei are certainly very interesting to me. While I don’t know the exact amount of time I spend streaming media, the large screen does seem very enticing. Not only would it make for a better viewing experience for videos, but it would also be beneficial for mobile gaming, surfing the web, or using certain features such as GPS/Maps.
I have always been interesting in new technology, however there’s a price limit to how far I’m willing to go to be an early adopter, and sadly $2,000 falls far outside that range.
While the price is steep now, I do believe there is reason to believe that it will drop as time goes on. As personal computers and 4K televisions has shown us, as technology advances, it becomes cheaper to produce. Eventually I do see the prices of folding smartphones dropping and more individuals purchasing them, however it is critical that companies like Samsung work out the kinks and make them desirable in the first place, otherwise interest can die before prices can drop.