The era of foldable smartphones is finally here – and the impact will be enormous

Move over present, the future has arrived.
After about a decade of waiting, years of hoping, and several rumored false starts, the era of the foldable smartphone officially began this month with the announcement of not one, but two different efforts to bring devices leveraging bendable, foldable displays to market.
To be fair, it won’t actually be until sometime in 2019 when we can see, hold and purchase such products. Nevertheless, the introduction of Samsung’s Infinity Flex display-based devices and the Royole FlexPai make it clear that the long dreamed of idea for a pocket-sized smartphone that can unfold into a larger, tablet-like device is finally upon us.
The appeal of such a device is obvious, and I believe its impact – at least, eventually – will be enormous. Just as it’s hard to remember a world where mobile phones only made phone calls, so too will there come a time when it will be hard to imagine a world that didn’t have foldable, connected computing devices that fit into our pockets.
At the same time, while it’s easy to look back at the first iPhone and see its obvious shortcomings, so too will the limitations of first-generation foldable devices become apparent over time. That is the nature of technological developments. To be clear, however, I am convinced that 2019 will be remembered as the beginning of the foldable era.
One key reason is that foldable display technology enables the continuation of arguably the most important development in the evolution of smartphones: larger screens. From the early days of 3.5” displays to today’s common 6”+ sizes, the insatiable desire for screen real estate has driven the progressive design of smartphones.
Now that we’ve reached (some might even argue, surpassed) the largest screen size that people can comfortably hold in one hand, and reduced the bezels around the screen to essentially nothing, there’s really nowhere else to go in traditional phone designs. They are as big and screen-dominated as they can possibly be.