Samsung has promised to make foldable smartphones more popular. Experts say new technology that makes them thinner and more durable could be the key.
Don't Buy a Foldable Phone Until You See This – The Foldable Phone Gimmick
In the company’s earnings call on July 29, Samsung revealed that it wants to focus heavily on the future of foldable smartphones like the ZFold and ZFlip, and ultimately make foldable phones more mainstream. While Samsung plans to release four new foldable models and others are getting in on the foldable action, experts say that going mainstream will require such smartphones to overcome hurdles that may not be possible without new technological advancements.
"I really believe they'll go mainstream," Adam Shine, vice president of electronics recycler and reseller Sunnking, told Lifewire in an email. "The first iteration of a radical design often takes time to perfect. I'm pretty sure that once nanotechnology advances further, you'll see phones that are slightly thicker than a piece of paper, and that's when this technology will get really interesting."
The idea behind nanotechnology is to create on the same level as atoms and molecules. The basic concept was originally introduced by physicist Richard Feynman in 1959 and has only gained more adherents over the years. Everything we interact with on a daily basis is made up of molecules and atoms, and being able to control those pieces more directly at the molecular level could unlock new technological advances that simply wouldn’t be possible otherwise.