Samsung hosted a press conference in its homeland today, and the main topic was the Galaxy Note 8, but during this press event, Samsung also revealed something really interesting. Samsung Mobile’s President, DJ Koh, actually confirmed that the company plans to release its foldable smartphone next year, which definitely came as a surprise for pretty much everyone at the event. Such a handset has been in development for a very long time, and it seems like Samsung is almost ready to announce it.
Now, during this event, Samsung also announced that the Galaxy Note 8 is currently the best-selling Galaxy Note-branded phone ever, which is something we’ve already talked about. The company managed to sell 650,000 units of the device in only 5 days, as it receive pre-orders from 40 countries, Samsung actually sold (via pre-orders) 2.5 times more Galaxy Note 8 units compared to the Galaxy Note 7 (5 days after its launch). Having said that, the company’s foldable smartphone will sport a bendable display, and if various reports from analysts are to be believed, manufacturing such a smartphone will be quite difficult if Samsung plans to include high-end specs inside, and keep it relatively thin at the same time. On top of everything that Samsung talked about during this press conference, DJ Koh also said that the company’s Harmon speaker division is actively working on developing an AI-based speaker. The whole idea behind this speaker is that it should compete with the likes of Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod, who are the biggest players in this category at the moment.
Now, we’ve seen a ton of rumors regarding foldable smartphones in the last couple of years, but one such rumor did not surface for quite some time, so it will be interesting to see what exactly is Samsung planning for next year. No doubt some info will leak in the coming months, as the announcement of such a device is getting closer, though it is still unknown as to when exactly is Samsung planning to announce such a device, will it happen during CES in January, or will Samsung wait until the end of 2018 maybe? Who knows, stay tuned, though, we’ll keep you posted, as per usual.