Foldable phone outlook hinges on price

Handset makers are racing to launch their first smartphones with folding screens but analysts warn the technology is still too rudimentary — and expensive — to woo consumers in large numbers for now.

Samsung, the world’s biggest seller of smartphones, unveiled a handset that folds open like a book to be a tablet at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday, becoming the first major manufacturer to offer the long-awaited feature.

China’s Huawei, the world’s second biggest smartphone seller, immediately followed in its footsteps and presented its own phone with a folding screen — the Mate X — on Sunday at an event in Barcelona on the start of the Mobile World Congress trade fair.