Apple may have only just entered the foldable smartphone market, but its biggest competitors are already using the iPhone Duo launch to promote their own foldable devices.
Samsung and Motorola have both released marketing messages highlighting the fact that they have been selling foldable phones for years.
Samsung began teasing Apple ahead of the September 9 launch, placing advertisements in cities including Seoul, Tokyo and London.
Following Apple’s announcement, Samsung Mobile US posted a simple message: “So far, so same.” It later followed up with another jab at Apple, telling the company to let it know when it was finished “reheating” Samsung’s ideas.
Motorola also joined the conversation.
The company released a video featuring its Razr foldable phones alongside the message: “New in their hands. Iconic in ours.”
The marketing battle is hardly surprising.
Apple’s entry into foldable smartphones represents a major moment for the category because of the company’s enormous influence over the wider smartphone market.
Samsung has been developing foldable smartphones since 2019, while Motorola has also built several generations of Razr foldables.
Apple is therefore entering a market that its competitors have already spent years developing.
The iPhone Duo’s launch gives those companies an opportunity to remind consumers that foldable phones did not begin with Apple.
But there is an interesting risk to the strategy.
Every time Samsung or Motorola talks about Apple’s new phone, they are also giving Apple’s product additional publicity.
Marketing experts quoted by Business Standard noted that relying too heavily on Apple’s launch could eventually make the rivals’ campaigns look reactive rather than independent.
For now, though, the strategy is generating plenty of attention.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone has created one of the biggest smartphone conversations of the year, and competitors are attempting to turn that attention toward their own devices.
The bigger question is what happens after the launch excitement fades.
Samsung and Motorola will need to convince consumers that their foldables offer advantages beyond simply being the companies that got there first.
Apple, meanwhile, will have to prove that its much later entry into the category brings something genuinely different.
The competition could ultimately benefit consumers.
With Apple now joining Samsung, Motorola and other established foldable manufacturers, customers will have more choices — and companies will have greater pressure to improve durability, software, cameras, battery life and pricing.
The foldable smartphone race has officially become much more crowded.
And Apple has barely entered it.
