Samsung is aiming to launch a foldable Galaxy Note phone as early as next year, and will take on the likes of Amazon and Google with a voice-controlled speaker, it has revealed.
The comments were made during Samsung’s news conference announcing the Galaxy Note 8, hours before Apple is set to announce its tenth-anniversary iPhone models.
Speaking to reporters, Samsung Electronics president of mobile business, Koh Dong-jin, said the company is working on a phone with a foldable display.
“As the head of the business, I can say our current goal is next year,” Dong-jin said. “When we can overcome some problems for sure, we will launch the product.”
Dong-jin did not give away the extent of these problems, but the company has been rumoured to be heading in this direction for a while.
Samsung introduced a flexible display prototype called Youm in 2013, which is used on the Galaxy Round. Since then, speculation about whether or not the company can produce foldable displays has been rife.
Dong-jin also revealed the company is working with auto-systems maker Harman on an AI-enabled voice-controlled speaker. The speaker will play music and perform other tasks, similar to the Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple’s HomePod, which is due to go on sale in December.
It is clear the company hopes these innovations will help it go from strength to strength, following the comeback of the Galaxy Note 8 after problems with the Note 7.
Dong-jin said Samsung received more than a half million preorders for the Note 8 – its most expensive phone yet – in South Korea before its launch last week.
The phone beat its expectations in terms of market response, even though the brand’s reputation has taken a hit in the past. Samsung has fixed the battery problem, but that’s not the only thing that’s been upgraded: our Galaxy Note 8 review gave the new model four stars and deemed it an outstanding comeback.
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