Daily Authority: 📈 Foldables rising

🥐 Good morning! A hot-baked croissant was a great way to start the day. (Why don’t I live in France?)

Samsung’s foldable dreams

One of the truly intriguing smartphone developments after this year will be Samsung’s next foldables.

• As we’ve been covering, a bunch of copycat foldables came out of China, some with some mild design changes, but most have been more or less like the Z Fold series.
• The best out of the likes of Oppo, Vivo, Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi in recent times was probably the Oppo Find N, simply for having a slightly changed form-factor that appealed for carrying it about.

Now, in its earnings report that was held earlier today, Samsung confirms new foldables are coming later this year.

• Yes, that’s no surprise. It would’ve been quite something if Samsung said it wasn’t bothering.
• But official word is always good. Then, it’s what else Samsung said in its earnings call.
• First, it said it expects its foldables sales to double, noting: “We expect this year’s foldable market will grow around 2x versus last year.”
• Then, Samsung said about its goals: “Our goal in terms of foldables is to continue the increase of Z-series sales so that Z-series becomes another main pillar next to the S-series within our business.”
• Having foldable sales match its S-series will really be something, though, of course, Samsung would say it wants that.

Other stuff:

• Samsung also explained it was working hard on improving the software experience in foldables, which is improving, and in regards to any supply chain concerns, is working to ensure the launch of its foldables isn’t limited by component shortages.
• One factor might be the availability of Qualcomm’s chips.
• In Qualcomm’s earnings, CEO Cristiano Amon said, as reported by Reuters: “…he expects the ‘relationship with Samsung only to increase,’ adding that in the latest Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone about 75% of the high-end chips were Qualcomm chips, up from about 40% in Samsung’s last phone, and replacing Samsung chips.”
• That’s a massive jump for Qualcomm.
• We knew that was playing out given that Samsung shipped fewer Exynos-powered Galaxy S22 phones, switching to Qualcomm in India, for example.
• But why Samsung gave Qualcomm preference over its own Exynos chips is not clear, although the guess would be Exynos 2200 yields were low.
• And, Samsung Foundry itself fabbed the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chips!

Roundup

🔧 Apple’s limited self-repair system in the US has finally been revealed and launched: Really good to see Apple release repair manuals, but believe it or not, it’s a self-serving platform for Apple too: iFixit sees problems with all the various restrictions on parts, renting tools involves a $1,200 charge on your card until you send it back, and the “Self Service Battery Bundle for iPhone 13 Pro” costs $71, yet alternatively it costs just $69 to send your phone off to Apple and get them to do it for you. (Though, you might get a $24 credit for your battery from Apple, if you recycle it, so it may well be cheaper. But the number of people who think all that is worth the hassle and risk is really small!) (Android Authority).

⚡ Er, Belkin has denied it is making a wireless charging tech device this year. Something like the Xiaomi Mi Air Charge was mentioned by a wireless charging tech company in a TechCrunch report but Belkin says it hasn’t even made a product concept yet (The Verge).

💑 Er, speaking of actual real relationships and connections: The FDA-approved Lover app was previously iOS only but is now out on Android. It was funded by a Tinder founder (TechCrunch).

🥽 And back to VR: Mark Zuckerberg said Meta’s upcoming Project Cambria VR glasses are for work and will “eventually [replace] your laptop or work setup” in mixed reality (Facebook).

🦆 Fun deep dive into how autocorrect started and evolved, including an interview with Ken Kocienda, who created the iPhone’s autocorrect software. And, a duck. You know why. (Wall Street Journal, $)

Remember the other day when it emerged Netflix was facing some pretty big struggles?

Well, the juicy details about Netflix are out, already.

As this guy said on Twitter, usually you have to wait for a book some years after the fact to get the quotes and gossip, but it’s all here:

• “Netflix’s big wake-up call: The power clash behind the crash” (Hollywood Reporter).
• All the internal politics playing out in real time.
• And just in case you thought the streaming companies were all in it together, no. No, no, no.
• The piece starts with an explanation of schadenfreude and “The entire town’s rooting against them,” is a leading quote if you want the gist of what’s going on.

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.