Samsung converts iPhone users to foldables. Apple hasn't released a foldable phone. Samsung celebrates winning a race against a competitor who isn't running.
The strategy makes perfect sense if you ignore that Apple enters markets late and then owns them. Apple didn't invent smartphones. Didn't invent tablets. Didn't invent wireless earbuds that look like electric toothbrush heads. Showed up years later and made everyone forget the original companies existed.
Samsung's current advantage is that foldable phones break when you fold them. This feature costs an extra eight hundred dollars. The pitch to iPhone users goes like this: Your phone works and fits in your pocket, but what if it didn't do either of those things and also cost more than your rent.
Turns out some people say yes to that pitch.
Apple's rumored foldable threatens to reshape the market. Threatens. As if Samsung currently shapes the market. They don't shape it. They occupy a small corner of it where people who need everyone on the subway to know they spent too much money on a phone that creases down the middle like a greeting card.
Samsung draws more users now because Apple isn't selling foldables yet. This is like bragging about your marathon time when you're the only person who showed up to run. The clock starts. You finish. You win by default. Then Usain Bolt registers for next year's race and you spend twelve months telling reporters about your conditioning program.
When Apple releases a foldable, it'll work. The hinge won't sound like a jar of nickels. The screen won't develop a permanent scar where it folds. And every Samsung foldable owner will pretend they never owned one, the same way Zune owners pretended they always had iPods.
Samsung's window closes the day Apple ships. Enjoy the head start while it lasts, because second place is still first loser.
Photo by Georgiy Lyamin on Unsplash
Leave a Comment