Samsung Readies Partners for New Hybrid, Foldable Tablet-Smartphone

Written by Jeff Schwartz
February 22, 2019

Samsung aims to spur mobile device growth with Galaxy Fold.

Samsung is priming the channel and those in its mobile solution provider partner program (MSPP) for the new Galaxy Fold and the rollout of several upgraded smartphones that include among the first that support emerging high-speed Wi-Fi 6 and 5G networks.

The new devices, launched Wednesday at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked conference in San Francisco, was staged ahead of a blitz of announcements expected at next week’s annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

At the same time, despite weakening demand for smartphones, Samsung is making a bold statement that rebukes widespread reports that the smartphone and tablet markets are mature, oversaturated and maxed out on the innovation front. Samsung believes it will prove critics wrong with the launch of its first commercial foldable device, which the company has touted over the years as an R&D effort since 2011, most recently last summer, and believes will create a new mobile device category.

Samsung’s DJ Koh

“The Galaxy Fold breaks new ground not just because it defies categories, it breaks new ground because it answers skeptics who said everything possible has been done,” said DJ Koh, president and CEO of Samsung’s IT and Mobile Communications division, speaking at this week’s Unpacked event. “Today marks a new beginning — a shift that will see the smartphone’s role at the center of our lives grow stronger as the value that technology delivers grows deeper.”

Galaxy Fold will be available during the next quarter to consumers through AT&T and T-Mobile in the second quarter, and to commercial customers through channel partners on April 26, said Michael Coleman, Samsung’s vice president of mobile channel sales. “The Fold is really an amazing phone,” Coleman said in an interview.

In tablet mode, it has a 7.3-inch display with a hinging mechanism built with interlocking gears that can fold into the form of a 4.6-inch phone. The Galaxy Fold’s Multi Active Window lets users display and multitask with up to three applications at a time. A feature called App Continuity is designed to ensure a user can fold the device without interruption of a task.

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Coleman believes the Fold’s form factor and multitasking capability will give partners new opportunities to create innovative solutions for customers. Because Samsung is releasing the SDKs for the App Continuity capability, ISVs can build applications that utilize its multiscreen user experience, Coleman added.

“We really need the community to begin doing new things, we don’t even know how much can be done yet,” he said. “That’s where the channel can really step up and take this platform and really build out some truly innovative.”