Several major phone manufacturers are scrambling to bring out foldable phones to rival the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, and now it seems Google is planning to enter the fray along with Apple.
The first design shows a phone that would fold down on itself when not in use, a ‘clamshell’ design, with the screen is on the inside when the device is closed. This is a form factor a few other companies are looking at, including Samsung, for a Fold-successor.
Google’s interest is clearly going beyond Samsung — the company has been readying Android to work with foldables and morphing form factors.
In fact, one of Android Q’s biggest new features is the support for foldables, something that Google engineers have been working on for a long time. Even the angled line in the Q logo is an obvious representation of a folded surface, a graphical statement that strongly indicates how important the push towards this form factor is for Google.
It is clear that the Mountain View company thinks foldable mobile devices are strategic for the Android platform, and thus it makes sense for them to set that gold standard with a Pixel Fold.
