“Probably one of the worst things that can happen to a product is for it to get terrible early reviews,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes for ZDNet. “It sets the tone for the product that’s hard to shake off, and undermines all the buzz and hype generated at the unveiling.”
“This is what happened to Samsung and its $2,000 Galaxy Fold smartphone,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “When the initial reviews started to land showing screen corruption and broken displays, things predictably took a rapid turn to the negative.”
The screen on my Galaxy Fold review unit is completely broken and unusable just two days in. Hard to know if this is widespread or not. pic.twitter.com/G0OHj3DQHw
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019
https://twitter.com/stevekovach/status/1118571414934753280
https://twitter.com/backlon/status/1118573836226658304
“Now that Samsung has officially pulled the plug on the worldwide launch as it looks into ‘further improvements,’ it raises questions as to what went wrong, both with the design and at Samsung,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “At this stage, it looks like the answer to the question ‘what went wrong with the Galaxy Fold?’ is that Samsung dropped the ball in spectacular fashion and was left scrabbling for a response when things went bad.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What went wrong at Samsung? South Korean dishwasher design isn’t the firmest foundation for trying to do anything beyond poorly knocking off Apple products.
• The Samsung Galaxy Crease. Yet more pre-alpha garbage peddled to the ignorant by a South Korean dishwasher maker. — MacDailyNews, March 21, 2019
• As with fingerprint and facial recognition, when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, then foldable smartphones will have been done right. — MacDailyNews, January 17, 2019
• We’ll see a mess of weird attempts before Apple shows how it’s to be done, as usual. — MacDailyNews, January 23, 2019
• If and when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, they’ll be showing the world how it should be done and what to copy going forward. As usual. — MacDailyNews, February 27, 2019
SEE ALSO:
Beleaguered Samsung delays Galaxy Fold launch after test units break – April 22, 2019
Beleaguered Samsung postpones Galaxy Fold media events – April 22, 2019
Hey, Samsung, what’s the point of being first, if you can’t be good? – April 19, 2019
Samsung Galaxy Fold display failures raise specter of Note 7 fiasco – April 18, 2019
CNBC reviews Samsung Galaxy Fold: Completely unusable after just two days of use – April 17, 2019
The Verge reviews Samsung Galaxy Fold: Screen broke after just a day – April 17, 2019
Samsung Galaxy Fold display issues emerge immediately – April 17, 2019
Ugly wrinkle for Samsung: Galaxy Fold sports a nasty crease running down the middle of the display – March 21, 2019
absolute joke – March 14, 2019
Apple’s glass supplier says it’ll be ready for real, durable foldable iPhones within ‘a couple of years’ – March 5, 2019
Apple patent application reveals foldable iPhone with self-heating display, lock-out mechanism to protect against cold weather damage – February 28, 2019
If Apple does a foldable iPhone, then folding phones will have been done right – February 28, 2019
Given how wide spread the problem is, how was this not found in internal testing?
No doubt.
Internal testing? what that.
if I was doing “internal testing” for them, the first thing I’d do is open and close it 1000 times- counting off as I did it. I wouldn’t even turn it on until I got to 1000.
oh, silly me. 🙂
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When I was in the store buying my first iPhone (iPhone 3G) the first thing I did was stick it in my pocket. Then I deliberately “let it slip” out of my hand and dropped it on the (carpeted) floor. I figured if the “touch screen” wasn’t durable there was no point. When It passed these two quick tests, I knew I wanted one because Jobs had me at “pinch to zoom.” 🙂
Jobs did not invent pinch to zoom.. he adopted it.
I think it was, and upper management went ahead anyway ignoring the warnings. I keep hearing stories about how that happens at Samsung, like with the Note fiasco. Engineer raised a warning, upper manager ignored or refused to believe it and pushed forward. They would never be questioned / challenged by the lower level person reporting the issue due to harsh reprimand. Apparently its ingrained in the culture as well the company, and not a surprise really based on events so far.
I did internal testing, it gave me indigestion
Eff ’em