After Samsung, Huawei delays launch of its foldable phone

Taking cues from Samsung’s Galaxy Fold fiasco, Huawei is delaying the market launch of its own foldable Mate X. The Mate X was set to debut in select markets come June, but according to a new The Wall Street Journal report, Huawei has now pushed the timeline to September – to improve the quality of the folding screen, something that has become a bone of contention in the case of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.

The Galaxy Fold was pulled off the shelves ahead of its scheduled April 26 launch after many review units of the foldable started breaking – either because of debris that made its way inside from under the exposed areas of the hinge, or when the top protective layer of the main display (which looked like it was a screen protector) was peeled off. Samsung recalled all the review units and started an internal investigation to find out the root cause(s) of the problem. 

Only recently, Samsung came up and announced that it will cancel all pre-orders if it failed to ship the Galaxy Fold by the end of May – Samsung missed that target as well. Now, the company has put forth a new timeline – and even though there’s no exact time-frame quoted, the Galaxy Fold will not hit the shelves before the end of July. The only plausible explanation for the delay is Samsung not being able to fix the Galaxy Fold – to meet its ‘new’ quality standards. 

As for Huawei, the delay could also be related to the US ban. With the future of its devices in jeopardy after Google, Qualcomm, ARM and other tech giants suspended business with it, the last thing that Huawei needs now is a product with the slightest chance of backfire – it's a risk that Huawei simply can’t take at this point of time. The Trump administration has given Huawei until August to sort of ease into things (so it could possibly ensure existing devices aren’t affected). The delay will also give Huawei time to decide if Android is the way to go – or it should relaunch the Mate X with its in-house operating system.   

Having said that, it won’t be surprising if there’s a further delay in launch if Huawei is trying to sort things out with the US government – and if at all, both parties are unable to reach some sort of agreement soon.     

Also Read:  Huawei Mate X Foldable 5G Phone First Look: Have Wings, Will Fly