Flips may no longer be a flop like before

Apple has finally climbed onto the flip smartphone wagon with its iPhone Duo, a design-tech that Samsung had pioneered with its Galaxy Z Flip in 2020. (See 'Just in Jest' below.) Tech advances make folding devices more than a novelty. Screen real estate has been an issue with smartphone makers. But they haven't progressed much beyond iPhone's innovation of doing away with a physical keyboard. Phones have grown since. But they still need to fit in trouser pockets. There the matter rested till Samsung ticked most boxes. But Galaxy Z was frightfully expensive. Apple, for a while, stayed away, offering, instead, larger-screen versions of its new launches. It may be tempting to see Apple's flip phone as setting off mass upgrades. But they still cost 2x as a regular smartphone for pretty much the same feature set. Except that screens can now fold 2, 3 or 4 ways.

Folding phones will cost way more because screens that do not break after repeated bending require precise manufacturing. Hinges that control the folding mechanism have micro gears and are assembled by proprietary processes. Research into materials, engineering and software development is expensive, and these costs are passed on to early buyers of folding phones. Most people are okay with regular phones. Flippy ones tend to remain a status symbol. Manufacturers price them as luxury products instead of the necessity a single-screen phone has become. Folding phones allow brands to distinguish themselves in a market where products have become similar in specifications. They may have overcome their engineering challenges, but still don't offer an adequate value proposition.

John Ternus, Apple's new CEO, announced the iPhone Duo at his first product launch as the most transformational change since the original. Whether that translates into changing consumer behaviour the way iPhone did is an open question. Most Apple innovations after iPhone 1.0 have been of a lower magnitude. But those have strengthened the Apple ecosystem. So, this latest flip shouldn't be a flop.