Notable bits:
Next year, Huawei and Samsung plan to introduce more competitively priced foldable phones, and other Android manufacturers are expected to follow suit, driving accelerated expansion in the foldable phone market.
Recent reports from industry insiders suggest that Huawei’s development of a triple-foldable screen phone is progressing smoothly and may be ready for launch before March next year. It’s expected that two triple-foldable screen phones will be introduced in 2024.
Supply chain sources have also revealed that Samsung is planning to bring foldable phones to the mid-range market next year, further reducing price barriers and making foldable phones more accessible to a broader range of consumers.
The whole thing is going to zero in the long run, in my view
It’s like TVs, eventually you get to a point where the incremental features don’t really add anything to the user experience, like when they tried to do the 3D TV thing folks were like no, we are happy with HD, thanks. Once in a while we have a breakthrough in tech like 4K but once all the manufacturers catch on all that is left to compete on is price and then it becomes a race to the bottom.
Phones might be different in that they can be wealth signalers, like jewelery, but I’m not sure how much longer consumers will keep biting. What are they going to do, add a 5th camera? To what end?
Already we see the upgrade cycle slowing, sales missing targets etc. I’m sure inflation isn’t helping either.
Carriers switched to 36 month payments.
This is unrelated to your point but you’ve hit in an interesting idea. If they were willing to dedicate a significant part of the body to the camera there could be a breakthrough. If they were willing to make the lens much bigger (like, 2 inch) and/or go in most of the phone thickness it would give it better optical qualities.