Samsung CEO calls Galaxy Fold launch failure “embarrassing”

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  You can see the book-like “spine” of the Fold here. [credit:
  Samsung ]

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Fold was supposed to be revolutionary. The futuristic $2,000 phone was positioned as the first foldable smartphone from a major manufacturer, allowing Samsung to leverage its display leadership into a hybrid phone/tablet device that no one else could produce. The Galaxy Fold’s early media-review period was a disaster, though, with social media quickly filling with photos of dead and dying Galaxy Folds. After several phones died in the hands of reviewers, Samsung was forced to cancel the launch, and many pre-orders were refunded.

That was all in April. Now it’s July, and there’s still no sign of the Galaxy Fold actually making it to market. Speaking to The Independent, Samsung Electronics CEO DJ Koh gave the press an update on the device, though there is still no firm re-launch date.

Speaking of the Galaxy Fold launch, Koh said, “It was embarrassing. I pushed it through before it was ready.” For now, Koh says the company is “in the process of recovery” and doing lots of testing. “At the moment,” Koh said, “more than 2,000 devices are being tested right now in all aspects. We defined all the issues. Some issues we didn’t even think about, but thanks to our reviewers, mass volume testing is ongoing.”