We’re fast approaching a decade since the first commercially available foldable phones arrived — yes, I’m counting the hilariously bad Royole FlexPai. Yet, despite the strides we’ve made in the technology behind them, foldables as a category are stuck behind a proverbial wall.
Everyone from Samsung to Google, Motorola, and a plethora of Chinese OEMs have spent years redesigning hinges, improving displays, and offering increasingly aggressive trade-in deals to spur take-up. Despite that, foldables still make up just 1.6% of global smartphone shipments.
