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Google may have delayed the launch of its first foldable smartphone multiple times, but it certainly hasn’t killed off the project. The Pixel Fold or the Pixel Notepad, whatever it is called, is still in development. Originally planned for a 2021 launch, the company is now looking to bring the foldable to the market in 2023, a New York Times report says.
Google’s Pixel Fold may finally arrive in 2023
There have been contrasting reports around the Pixel Fold in recent months. While some suggested Google is working on the product, others say the company has shelved it. Perhaps an incredibly slow development by the Search giant is causing this confusion. But there’s now a growing belief that we will see a Made by Google foldable smartphone someday.
An APK teardown of the Google Camera app last month revealed the slow but steady progress the company is making on the project. We now have a new report adding fuel to it. “Google is exploring a foldable phone for 2023,” the NYT report states. It doesn’t add any other info about the product but sheds some light on how the growing concerns about the US-China geopolitical tensions may affect the plans.
American companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple are moving their manufacturing hubs away from China. This has been coming ever since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the Chinese supply chain. But the process has been accelerated recently as tensions rise between the two economic powerhouses.
According to the new report, Google will manufacture some of its upcoming Pixel 7 series smartphones in Vietnam. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone vendor, already manufactures about half of its phones there. So it has a robust supply chain too. Google plans to shift half of its Pixel phone manufacturing capacity to Vietnam by next year.
However, this shift won’t come easy. Perhaps that’s why Google won’t have completely left China even after two years. It’s hard to do that, such is the strength of the Chinese supply chain despite all the troubles. People familiar with the matter around the Pixel Fold told the NYT that the company will need to keep the device’s production close to key suppliers in China because it requires advanced screen and hinge technologies.
Nonetheless, regardless of where Google manufactures Pixel Fold, we hope the company won’t delay the device any further. The foldable market is already heating up and we can’t wait to see Google fighting in it. We will keep you updated with all the latest information on the foldable Pixel.