Samsung Electronics, the world's largest mobile phone maker, said Wednesday that it will launch Galaxy Fold, a foldable 5G smartphone, in April, at a price close to $2,000, to boost consumer upgrades.
Samsung executives said at an event in San Francisco that Galaxy Fold will be available on April 26, with a 4.6-inch display screen when folded and a 7.3-inch display when unfolded.
Samsung Mobile Communications President Gao Dongzhen said at the event that the mobile phone "opens up an innovation board because it responds to skeptics'claims that everything that can be done has already been done... We prove them wrong."
The phone will help Samsung compete with Apple (AAPL.O) and Huawei in China. Although Huawei enlarged its market share last year, the overall sales of the industry declined as China's economy faced difficulties at the end of last year.
Samsung also launched several accessories to compete with Apple, including a wireless headset called Galaxy Buds. The headphones can be charged wirelessly, and Apple has promised that its AirPods headphones will use this feature, but the product has not yet been released.
Samsung also said that the new Galaxy phone will be able to charge headphones and smart watches wirelessly.
Samsung said it was working with Facebook (FB.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft (MSFT.O) to build special versions of their popular applications to fit new displays. For example, the Galaxy fold-down phone has a feature that allows users to expand the phone and access Facebook posts.
Samsung said it had developed a new process for the hinges and flexible screens of the new mobile phone, which could open and close the phone hundreds of thousands of times.
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