What They Say
Last week, we reported an article from 9to5Mac that suggested that Google would ship the Pixel Fold to market next year (Google could release its first foldable Pixel in 2022). However, this week DSCC said that its supply chain sources have reported that the handset has been shelved. Challenges that DSCC sees were in having sufficient scale to compete with Samsung and the fact that where Samsung is weakest, particularly China, there will be other brands of foldable to compete.
The firm has slightly revised its forecast for foldable smartphones for 2021 down from 10.4 million to 10 million, with Samsung slightly up on the forecast, but Chinese brands down because of chip supply.
What We Think
DSCC lament that this might slow down the software innovations in folding that Google might introduce to Android, as it would probably have kept some features unique to its own handsets. The foldable segment is an area where Android has a lead over Apple, so I would expect Google to continue to push developments. (BR)
