Samsung has been on a roll lately with patenting new stuff. We saw earlier this morning that Samsung has patented a new design for its upcoming smartphones, likely the Galaxy S5 or Note 4. Now it looks like they are pushing the envelope in terms of new design for what seems to be a tablet, or possibly another new Note type of device. Pictured in the patent, filed just 2 days ago on December 31st, 2013, is a foldable device that very much resembles that of a tablet. We’ve also seen some seriously interesting concepts from Samsung when it comes to foldable devices before, like this folding phone concept that breathes new life into the clamshell phones of old. The tablet looks like most Samsung tablets except for the obvious foldable section in the middle. After it folds the tablet resembles that of a Nintendo 3DS, which is a great thing in my book. Having a foldable tablet makes plenty of sense, especially when it comes to protecting that big, beautiful screen just in case you drop it.
Tablets have become an increasingly more important market for Samsung, who just met the 40 million sales mark for tablets in 2013 alone. We saw the obvious spike in sales thanks to the Christmas holiday, and just how dominant Samsung has become in both the phone and tablet markets around the world too. Samsung is pulling out all the stops to get to the top of the tablet race, and that means releasing every possible concept they can come up with this year. The newest line of Galaxy Note tablets is set to hit very soon in a brand new, larger size too. With the popularity of the Samsung brand expanding every year, it makes sense for Samsung to release more tablets that are very different from one another, making new products lines and simplifying existing ones. We all know just how confusing Samsung’s existing tablet lineup can be, and they’ve got a lot of work to do on the hardware front, but this newest concept could prove to be more interesting than a few extra cores or gigs of RAM on top of the same design they had 3 years ago. Let’s just hope they change out those absolutely horrid low-resolution LCD panels from the Galaxy Tab line for something a little more high end for this concept.