The exception is Huawei, which just confirmed its work on a foldable and now that it’s 5G. CEO Ken Hu was straight to the point in an interview with Digital Trends, shortly after the launch of the Mate 20. “We are working on foldable phones. Foldable 5G phones,” he said. Yu said some of the devices may launch in 2019, but that plans may change. “maybe sometime we will launch that, but not this time”, he said, while noting that it’s “not commercialized yet”.
The Future of Productivity
The big significance here is that Huawei is working on more than one 5G foldable. That signals that it has a lot of confidence in their success and has the tech nailed down. Huawei’s early adoption of 5G in these devices could also be a big draw, given their productivity implications. 5G is still in the early stages but is expected to give faster speeds with a wider coverage and less congestion. It will still be a while until the whole planet adopts the standard, but the move will ensure Huawei’s devices are ready. However, a recent report suggests that Lenovo is working on a tablet-size foldable, and so are Microsoft and Samsung, so it’s going to be a very competitive market. The form factor of Huawei’s device isn’t clear, but Yi did begin talking about the 7.2″ Mate 20 X when asked, so that’s a possibility.
