One could argue that Apple has missed the boat on foldable phones. The company still hasn't shown any indication of making foldable iPhones, despite many rumors to the contrary. On the other hand, Samsung now commands a dominating position in the foldable segment even as plenty of other foldables have come on the market from Chinese OEMs. The company's solid product lineup, brand equity, software support, and global availability have all helped it maintain a solid lead in this segment of the market.
That's despite the fact that some of the new foldables that we from the likes of Huawei are from more innovative than what Samsung has done for the Galaxy Z series in recent years. It appears that Samsung has settled into its typical iterative state whereby major changes are shunned in favor of minor improvements and refinements every year. The job of capturing our imagination was done with the first foldable models, now there just doesn't seem to be that urgency to wow people with pushing the boundaries for foldables phones, like Huawei has done with the Mate XT.
Samsung pushed the idea that foldables will bring about a bold new future, and while that's true to some extent, it still remains within the confines of what a smartphone can achieve. Apple has focused its energies elsewhere, on the Vision Pro to be precise, a headset that's positioned as the starting point for spatial computing. With the Vision Pro, Apple is pushing the idea of moving beyond smartphones and their limitations to redefine how users interact with digital content. It's not iterating on an existing category, rather, it's building a new one.
The concept of a mixed reality headset is nothing new, but it's Apple's execution of the idea that has made people sit up and take notice. It's proposing an immersive, gesture-based experience that bypasses smartphones entirely. In contrast, foldable phones just feel like a continuation of iterative progress in the smartphone industry, rather than a radical new approach.
Apple views the Vision Pro as an entirely new ecosystem, and not an accessory to the iPhone or Mac, rather a centerpiece for spatial computing in its own right. It's envisioning a future where work, entertainment, and communication is accessed by users in a mixed-reality space without the need for smartphones. This represents a more ambitious rethinking of personal technology than Samsung's foldable approach.
Samsung does understand that this is where things are likely headed and it has been working on an XR headset. It previously confirmed a partnership with Google and Qualcomm for the mixed reality device, but hasn't revealed much about it since then. So even though Apple markets the Vision Pro aggressively as interest in this space grows, Samsung has largely remained silent and not shared anything regarding the progress on its mixed reality platform.
It was surprising that there was no mention of the XR platform during the Samsung Developers Conference 2024 earlier this month. It could have been the perfect place for Samsung to tease the device, at least by showing some of what the software experience on the headset could be, amid rumors that it's gearing up to launch the headset in March 2025. Yet, there was nothing, and it's not like SDC hasn't been used to tease brand new form factors before. Before the first Galaxy Fold even came out, Samsung revealed details about its internal foldable display at Samsung Developers Conference 2018.
Does the absence of any mention of the XR headset at SDC 2024 suggest that the device isn't ready for prime time yet or is Samsung downplaying its significance intentionally? That would be counterproductive as Apple continues to generate buzz around the Vision Pro. Samsung deciding not to get the buzz going for its XR headset is a missed opportunity as it lets Apple shape the narrative around spatial computing with the Vision Pro, just like Samsung was able to shape the narrative around foldables before anyone else.
Is it time for Samsung to rethink its focus on foldables if its wants to compete in the broader race to shape the future of technology? Apple has already shown what a post-smartphone world may look like with the Vision Pro. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg recently showed off a prototype of Orion augmented reality glasses and the company also continues to improve its Quest headsets. The next paradigm of computing is closer than ever before, Samsung shouldn't sit back and let the future pass it by.
