We already expressed our skepticism over the feasibility of Samsung’s rumored plan to build as many as 10 million foldable smartphones a month starting sometime in H2 2017, and a fresh Korean media report highlights the chaebol’s very understandable “caution.”

It’s not that Samsung couldn’t mass-manufacture and sell the so-called Galaxy X on a relatively large scale next year, considering how long it’s been since R&D kicked off and all the technological progresses made in the meantime. But the company, still reeling from the Note 7 fiasco, may simply not want to take the risk of there not being sufficient market demand for obviously costly flexible devices.

Low yields for several essential components helping with elasticity and robustness also have to be carefully examined, possibly leading to reduced profitability, and at the end of the day, even if “Project Valley” is cleared for takeoff in the near future, odds are the first commercial product will be a foldable tablet, not a phone. With an outward, not inward, curved panel, and non-rollable battery “placed in the flat sides instead of folded areas.”

You’d still be looking at a groundbreaking gadget flaunting new standard-setting flexibility and resistance to hard impacts, so in case Samsung indeed has doubts about customer interest, let your voices be heard in the comments section below. Wouldn’t you just love, say, a 7-incher capable of seamlessly turning into a 5-incher for improved pocketability?

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