Daring Fireball
AT&T Says It Won’t Carry Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/08/14/att-pixel-fold-nope
AT&T Says It Won’t Carry Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold

Link to: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/at-t-says-it-wont-carry-googles-pixel-9-pro-fold/

Daring Fireball
Aug 14, 2024 at 3:35pmDF Tootbot
Show threadJari PennanenAug 14, 2024

@daringfireball @gruber Foldables are premium devices, and have already established themselves. They sell well enough to justify new iterations, which is all this category needs.

I have a hard time imagining how different Apple's foldable design can be, this Google's foldable is already thin enough to look like a normal phone when closed.

However, Apple has cornered the premium buyer market, so they will (eventually) get the most foldable buyers because they are Apple, not because of design.

Show threadJohn GruberAug 15, 2024

@Ciantic I don’t think they “sell well enough” at all. I almost never ever see them in use in real life.

Almost never at airports, where I expect to see the widest variety of devices in use. I do sometimes see a Samsung foldable while traveling by train between Philly and NYC. But very rarely.

Show threadJari PennanenAug 15, 2024

@gruber They are selling well enough for vendors to make new versions. That seems to be what Android makers look for with all of their phone lines. Samsung is happy to dilute their Galaxy line with crappy phones, they don't care. If people keep buying those it's enough, it's hardly a flop if it's on the 6th iteration for Samsung.

Foldables might be a category like iPhone mini or SE which need not be released yearly... but Apple may differ, they have so many more buyers in the premium category.

Show threadmactenchiAug 14, 2024
@daringfireball Oh, I was thinking more that it was a support/durability concern rather than a sales one. Be curious to know their rationale.
Show threadEfftenAug 14, 2024
@daringfireball sample size of one second-hand anecdote, but I had a customer the other day with the Pixel Fold 8. He loves it but had several screens replaced before the carrier just started swapping the phone for him. They’re upgrading him to a 9 when released. He was very chill about it.