CES 2019 is a bit of future hell I’m not quite ready to try and wrap my brain around yet, but I have to, thanks to a suggestion by @evleaks that LG has big plans for it. We’re talking plans that involve folding things, which appears to be the next big trend in mobile.
According to Blass, LG will use its time on stage during a scheduled pre-show keynote to show off a foldable phone. That keynote will take place on Monday, January 7, and will be delivered by I.P. Park, LG’s president and CTO.
LG really wants us to pay attention to this keynote and has sent us a couple of press releases about it in recent weeks. CES is also putting plenty of push around the keynote too.
LG said that Park will speak heavily about artificial intelligence (insert giant eyeroll), AI technologies that enrich users’ experiences in life, and how LG is now a lifestyle innovator, rather than just a product manufacturing company. If correct, he’ll top all of the boring AI stuff with whatever their vision for a foldable device is.
We don’t know anything about LG’s plans for a foldable device at this time, outside of this Tweet. With that said, if Samsung is close to showing off its first foldable device, we’d be foolish to think that they are the only ones working on such tech. In fact, leaker @Iceuniverse suggested this morning that we could see three companies show off foldable devices between CES and MWC next year.
I’m not sure how excited I am just yet for the next wave of all-things-being-foldable, but if everyone in the industry is on board, that should at least give us multiple implementations to consider. I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with a phone that can become a tablet, I just need to be sold on the experience and value adds. If anything, it’s something new!