Back in 2019, TCL has shown to the world how plans to enter the foldable smartphone market.
The company has shown a folding device prototype which opens twice as a large 10-inch tablet.
Since then, the company has time and once again shows various types of design devices that plan to offer consumers.
However, it seems that the TCL plan enters the foldable smartphone market has reached Snag when TCL marketing officer Stefan Striit has confirmed that it suspended the launch of the first folded phone for a year.
“TCL has made a difficult decision to suspend the launch of the first commercially available folding smartphone until the company can produce and bring it to the market at a price point that can be accessed by as many consumers as possible,” Streit said according to the Android authority.
A report by CNET states that Streit has said that “this category is really important” for the company and its decision not to continue and launch a foldable handset based on several “commercial” factors that cover the weakness of the brand, expensive components due to pandemics and lack of support operator.
The report also added that Streit believed that market conditions need to be improved before the company launched consumer devices because folding phones were not ready to be adopted by mainstream users.
“We feel like this …
is a better time for TCL then launching something …
Hopefully bring to the mass market segment,” Streit said.
According to him, the market will be ready to be folded lower at the end of 2022 or early 2023 – that is when Apple is also rumored to reveal the first folded iPhone.