What comes after foldables? This is a question that many in Samsung's mobile division might be grappling with, and perhaps they have now achieved some clarity on the matter. New reports are suggesting that Samsung has begun work on rollable phones and that it may be looking to actually commercialize the form factor. This isn't exactly a new frontier. LG, may its mobile business rest in peace, showcased the LG Rollable concept at CES 2021. The company intended to launch this device by end of the year, but instead of launching the device, LG exited the smartphone business entirely later that year. China's Oppo showcased its Oppo X rollable phone in 2021 as well while a few other companies have showcased concepts too, but they effectively failed to successfully commercialize the product. Rumors about Samsung launching a rollable phone go back years but a device is yet to materialize. It's easier said than done. A feasible rollable phone would require considerable advancement and cost reduction in core components such as display panels. There would also be other complicated engineering problems that have to be solved without making the device prohibitively expensive. A report out of South Korea today claims that Samsung Display is now in advanced discussions to supply rollable OLED panels to Samsung's mobile division for a commercial device. If everything pans out, we may see a Galaxy-branded rollable phone hit the market in the first half of 2028. This would be a historically significant moment for Samsung as well, because mid-2028 would also be the tenth anniversary for Samsung's foldable smartphone lineup. The question now is that whether this would be another story of overpromising and under delivering that we've seen from everyone else that's tried to push a rollable phone, or whether Samsung would be the one company in the industry with the muscle to achieve a different outcome. Samsung faced the same skepticism when it entered the foldable segment back in 2019. It was Samsung's bold move that put spotlight on this form factor. Foldables have continued to go from strength to strength every year since then, with Samsung even forcing Apple to join the party later this year with its very first foldable iPhone. Galaxy foldables have now matured into a genuinely refined product with a defensible use case, and a global market. The company that most people predicted would fail in foldables is the company that built the entire category from scratch and is still the only one that has done it at scale. The display is perhaps the biggest engineering problem for a rollable phone. Samsung Display has been showcasing its flexible and rollable OLED technology for years now. It's genuinely one of the top display makers in the world with a vault full of patents that cover futuristic display technologies. It has had this technology maturing in its labs for years now, while it has been near-perfecting flexible OLED panels for foldable phones. This suggests that Samsung's 2028 timeline for the launch of a commercial rollable phone isn't ambition outrunning capability. There may be stumbles, initially. The original Galaxy Fold didn't get off to a smooth start, after all. Yet, Samsung was quick to turn things around and made significant strides in durability. Some slack must be cut as Samsung handles complex engineering challenges, such as motorized rolling mechanics for the OLED panel. The time is now for Samsung to make this strategic shift and set its sights on the next frontier. The foldable market will never be the same again for Galaxy models once Apple's foldable iPhone comes out. This would be the only true competitor for its foldables that enjoys the same global appeal and availability. In addition to doubling down and defending on foldables, Samsung has to signal that it's already working on what comes next, and that it's so far ahead in terms of technological advancements that its rivals, particularly, Apple, would perhaps need another half a decade to step up on the next rung of the ladder. The rollable phone has been announced and abandoned by enough companies that skepticism is entirely rational. But the companies that announced and abandoned it were not Samsung. They did not have Samsung Display's technology pipeline, Samsung's manufacturing infrastructure, its global retail distribution, or its experience of taking a new form factor from prototype to commercially viable across seven iterative years. If I were a betting man, I'd bet on Samsung.