Abstract:
When Apple has just released its first foldable screen smartphone, iPhone Duo, and officially entered the large-screen folding hardware track, Samsung Electronics, as the leader in the field of folding screens, quickly took a marketing action that was highly public relations drama. Samsung officially confirmed that it has sent the latest Galaxy Z Fold 8 flagship folding screen mobile phone to Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with a public speech, shouting to its old rival in a humorous and explosive manner: "Welcome to the world of folding screens, we have been waiting for you here for many years."
This speech from a distance, full of Silicon Valley-style humor and provocation, accurately hit the focus of global technology public opinion brought about by Apple's autumn conference. Apple launched the iPhone Duo, a book-style foldable model with a starting price of US$1,999, at the just held press conference, announcing that the technology giant has finally officially opened the door to the folding screen market after years of wait-and-see and secret research and development. As a pioneer in promoting the commercialization of folding screens in 2019 and has iterated to the eighth generation of products, Samsung obviously does not intend to give up the opportunity to emphasize its industry pioneer status.
In a public message delivered with the mobile phone, Samsung on the one hand expressed its "welcome" to Apple for following up on the folding form. It believed that the entry of the world's most influential consumer electronics giant eloquently proved the forward-looking and correctness of Samsung's bet on folding flexible screen forms, and completely ended the question of whether folding screens are just The long-term industry debate of "transitional form gimmick"; but on the other hand, Samsung has also unequivocally demonstrated the technical confidence of the first mover, implying that Apple is now taking a technological exploration path that Samsung has already taken a few years ago in core areas such as folding screen manufacturing technology, thin and light body, multi-tasking ecosystem and hinge durability.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 sent by Samsung this time is a mature product of its years of hard work in the field of folding screens. Compared with Apple's many structural designs that were first tested on the iPhone Duo, Samsung emphasized that it has achieved the ultimate industrial breakthrough in body thickness and weight control. At the same time, it has established extremely mature comprehensive barriers in the S Pen stylus ecology, the crease-free visual solution for the inner screen, the dustproof and waterproof level, and the full-scenario multi-window collaborative split-screen experience. What’s even more ironic is that despite the tit-for-tat confrontation between the two giants in the terminal mobile phone market, the core flexible OLED screen installed in Apple’s iPhone Duo is actually exclusively supplied by Samsung Display at an expensive unit price of up to US$250 per piece, forming a complicated competitive relationship.
Samsung's move of sending new products to rival CEOs continues the "provocative humor" that it has always been good at in public relations. It not only successfully grabbed eyeballs by taking advantage of the peak traffic of Apple's new phone release, but also firmly locked in its brand mentality as the founder and definer of the folding screen category.
With the iPhone Duo scheduled to start global delivery in October, the competitive balance in the high-end smartphone market is undergoing a qualitative change: folding screens are no longer a one-man show for the Android camp, but have officially evolved into the ultimate peak competition between Samsung’s mature eight-generation evolution system and Apple’s ecological appeal and 2nm computing power base. Apple officials and Tim Cook himself have not yet publicly responded to this special "gift" received.
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