According to ET News, Samsung is gearing up to start production of a prototype of its first foldable smartphone — commonly referred to as the Galaxy X — in the latter part of 2017. If that turns out be true and the firm believes there's demand for the handset, we can expect consumer models to start hitting the shelves sometime towards the end of 2018.
This is hardly fresh news, though. Samsung has been discussing, teasing and patenting foldable handsets for a while now, and was even believed to showcase a prototype at MWC 2017, though that didn't happen. If a prototype does enter production within the next couple of months, however, there's a chance (albeit, a small one) that it'll be on display at IFA.