The larger book-style foldables are really the ones we should be questioning, considering their price, durability issues and lack of a clear reason to exist.
I am not sure I agree.
Back in 2014/2015, we still used the term “phablet”, fast-forward ~10 years and almost all smartphones have become “phablets” with compact devices (what would be a regular device in 2014) have become extremely niche.
I’ve only used the book-style foldables in a Samsung showroom, they seemed fine, just very expensive.
Which bit do you disagree with? People have been saying this about the price for 6 years now. “Oh the price will come down when the technology stabilises”. Yet book style foldables in the West have had very little in the way of innovation now for several generations and they’re still the most expensive phones by far.
As you point out, all phones are large now. So is there really a sizeable corner of the market out there for an even bigger (but not as big as a tablet and in a weird aspect ratio) phone? Compact devices are niche, true, but niches sell because they are catering to a small corner of the market. Book-style foldables don’t even appear to have a niche audience after 6 years.
I am not sure I agree.
Back in 2014/2015, we still used the term “phablet”, fast-forward ~10 years and almost all smartphones have become “phablets” with compact devices (what would be a regular device in 2014) have become extremely niche.
I’ve only used the book-style foldables in a Samsung showroom, they seemed fine, just very expensive.
The price should eventually come down.
Which bit do you disagree with? People have been saying this about the price for 6 years now. “Oh the price will come down when the technology stabilises”. Yet book style foldables in the West have had very little in the way of innovation now for several generations and they’re still the most expensive phones by far.
As you point out, all phones are large now. So is there really a sizeable corner of the market out there for an even bigger (but not as big as a tablet and in a weird aspect ratio) phone? Compact devices are niche, true, but niches sell because they are catering to a small corner of the market. Book-style foldables don’t even appear to have a niche audience after 6 years.
I could see book-style foldables becoming more popular if the pride goes down, I thought they were useful in showroom testing.
But you are right, prices are still very high.
Depends on the currency you’re looking at. In Bitcoin and Monero terms, almost everything has gone down in price.