Samsung CEO Admits the Company Pushed Galaxy Fold Launch Before It Was Ready

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold launch followed a series of unfortunate events that led to the company cancelling all the pre-orders of the $1980 foldable phone and delaying its release. When Samsung first started shipping review units of the device, flaws in the foldable display started appearing. And it was a clear indicator of Samsung likely rushing things to beat the competition.

In an interview with The Independent, Samsung CEO DJ Koh admitted the company’s mistake. He told the publication that he pushed for the launch of the device before it was ready. “It was embarrassing,” Koh admitted.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“I do admit I missed something on the foldable phone, but we are in the process of recovery,” Koh said, stating that the company is testing more than 2,000 Galaxy Fold devices 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.”

Samsung faced a similar but much larger controversy when the company’s Note 7 devices caught fire. Samsung’s Note line obviously recovered from the damage that was caused by the event, but in the case of the Galaxy Fold, whether customers are willing to spend nearly $2000 on a product that may not last long is still a big mystery for the company. It still isn’t saying exactly when the device will be launched again, and with the company identifying more issues that weren’t found before, the launch of the Galaxy Fold could be delayed even further.

Koh said the device will launch in due course. “Give us a bit more time”.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 4 comments

  • skane2600

    01 July, 2019 - 2:41 pm

    <p>In his case CEO stands for Captain Extremely Obvious.</p>

  • karlinhigh

    Premium Member
    01 July, 2019 - 4:19 pm

    <p>Sometimes "reality distortion fields" are completely revealed for what they are.</p>

  • mmcpher

    Premium Member
    01 July, 2019 - 4:45 pm

    <p>Ya' think? Samsung put a whole lot of thought into marketing the roll-out, less, apparently, into the when of it. They knew they had something of interest on their hands yet failed to think and operate in a manner consistent with that knowledge (that they had a potentially valuable asset on their hands). It sure is a head-scratchier that they could come up with that whopping price tag without thinking through what must follow. </p><p><br></p><p>They now have a real challenge on their hands because if and when they re-release, the reviewers are going to be bending and twisting and torquing the devices to beat the band. Screen failure will be the principle area of attention and if there's any blood lingering in the water (and there will be) they are going to be primed to pounce. I have had a number of single slab screen devices which were often reviewed with little or no attention to the durability of the screen, with the concentration instead on the pixel density, display-in-sunlight, susceptibility to fingerprints. . . . But the reviewers are going to be using Folds as bottle-openers! </p><p><br></p><p>They have to overcome negative expectations, of course, but how are they going to build back up the price tolerance? No wonder they aren't re-rushing it out. </p>

  • brettscoast

    Premium Member
    01 July, 2019 - 5:59 pm

    <p>This was a bad mistep from Samsung considering what has happened before you think they would have learned something from the note fiasco. They are expecting customers to stump up a lof of cash for something that is not ready tet</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC