and Europe are completely different, Ubrani adds, noting that consumers don't have it as easy when it comes to switching between smartphone brands because they're often tied into an ecosystem. He says, in general in China, local brands and Apple lead in the smartphone market space, and Samsung faces an uphill battle. While Samsung barely has a presence in China with the foldables, they are the second-largest vendor behind Huawei, Ubrani says. "Not only would Google struggle with supply but they notoriously lack the carrier relationships that are key for the success of any smartphone in the U.S. He notes that Google would struggle with securing enough supply and at the right price because they don't have the same scale that Samsung does. Jitesh Ubrani, IDC's research manager of worldwide device trackers, agrees with Young and notes that if Google were to have released a device now it "simply wouldn't be competitive enough, as Samsung's reach and brand recognition surpass Google's in the smartphone market." There is also a high cost that comes from research and development, he says, and when companies wait longer before launching their own device they "will be able to fine-tune their devices more to address customer pain points, but at the cost of current mindshare." Klaehne says that the market is still nascent and that companies are still figuring out durability, the screen crease, and longevity of the flexible screens all of which can still be improved upon. It should be noted that Samsung isn't the only company with foldable phones, included in this list are Microsoft, Motorola, Huawei, and Xiaomi.
The company showed it was able to offer a premium experience that slab-shaped phones couldn't at prices that were still expensive, but reasonable. Samsung proved to customers that it was thinking differently about foldable devices when it introduced the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3. " naturally makes it harder to enter a market as Samsung commands a very big market share, with different form factors and price ranges even," he says. Maurice Klaehne, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, says in an interview that he refrains from commenting on rumors or speculation but it is very important to note that Samsung has a big lead over other manufacturers in the foldable space.