Episode 147 - Samsung's got new Foldable's... (for real this time)

Sometimes a formula… just works. It was lore for many years that to sell more iPods, all Apple really needed to do was “change the color and the shape” every so often. Now in reality, those changes tended to run deeper… improvements in storage, battery, interface, etc were typically right behind that fresh coat of paint.  In today’s smartphone-centric world, this strategy… hasn’t changed all that much. Sure go back far enough and every annual upgrade brought a potentially game changing feature… super high resolution displays, a front facing camera, heck… a camera you could reasonably USE… all of these were innovations fed to us one generation at a time over years of on stage events and world wide press releases. At this stage of product maturity, though, things don’t often “shake up” quite that much anymore.  Remember last year’s “best camera ever put into s smartphone”? Well have WE got something in store for you… because this year is the BESTEST best camera ever put into a smartphone… Oh, and it comes in three new colors too.  Sound… familiar?  Well good news, everyone, because this year things are shaping to be… a little less familiar.  Sure, what we’re about to talk about does eventually boil down to… a change in shape. But this isn’t “we took a tall narrow iPod and for some reason made it a tiny square iPod”… no this adds up to a change in overall shape, size, aspect ratio, build quality, material science… honestly, this might be the first truly “new” smartphone (in North America, at least) in a very long time…   Oh, and one more thing… I’m not talking about a new iPhone. Nope, age-old rival Samsung has done it again, beating its Cupertino-based nemesis to the punch. It has to be said, of course, first does not always equal best.  I have to admit though… I sure bought one. Let’s dive in…