Innovate? Big tech would rather throw us a broken Samsung Galaxy Fold | Charles Arthur

The saga of the malfunctioning $2,000 folding phone shows technology companies have a peculiar disregard for users

If you ever wondered whether the tech business is thrashing around in search of something – anything – to make people Buy More Unneeded Stuff, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is all the proof you need. Heralded as the first phone that unfolds to become a tablet, or possibly the first tablet that folds up into a phone, its worldwide launch has now been delayed because the units sent to some reviewers broke.

In some cases, they peeled off a protective layer over the folding screen, thinking it was just a protective layer; but it turned out that it was actually Very Important, and Not To Be Removed. Others found their screen gave up or seemed to be cracking, which worried Samsung so much that it demanded the units back. Now the company is taking a few weeks while it figures out whether to go ahead and demand $2,000 (£1,500) for a phone that might break in a few days.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2IC6ow7