Why every phone maker suddenly wants a foldable

Five years of niche sales, then three major launches in one quarter. The foldable gold rush is not about the phones — it is about what comes after them.

Why it matters

Hinge and display costs finally dropped below the threshold where a foldable can hit a mainstream price without losing money, and every supplier roadmap we have seen bets on that curve continuing.

The strategic prize is the tablet-replacement market. A phone that unfolds into a workable canvas threatens the slab tablet from below, and nobody wants to be the last maker without an answer.

The bottom line

Why every phone maker suddenly wants a foldable is not an isolated story — it is part of a broader shift we have been tracking across the industry all year. The vendors that adapt their roadmaps early will set the defaults everyone else lives with, and the ones that wait will spend the next product cycle catching up. We will keep this piece updated as the picture changes.

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