Comment: The mobile industry does not suffer from a lack of innovation, but from a lack of mass adoption of new designs.
Abrar Al-Heeti Senior Technology Journalist
Abrar’s interests include phones, streaming, autonomous vehicles, internet trends, entertainment, pop culture and digital accessibility. In addition to her current role, she has worked on CNET’s video, culture and news teams. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Even though Illinois is her home, she now loves San Francisco – steep hills and all.
Skill Abrar spent his career at CNET analyzing technology trends while writing news, reviews and commentary on mobile, streaming and online culture. Credentials
- Named a Tech Media Trailblazer by the Consumer Technology Association in 2019, winner of the SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2022, and was a three-time finalist in the LA Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.
For years people have decried the monotony of smartphone design. With each annual release, companies tend to recycle the same features when they really aren’t. borrowing from each other — with minimal improvements and virtually no aesthetic changes, resulting in a sea of sameness and uninspiring predictability.
That’s why at every tech event I’ve attended over the past few years, the most enthusiastic crowds grouping around phones that defy hardware limitations. This year’s Mobile World Congress is no exception. I pushed my way through hordes of people pushing to get their hands on foldable, folding And ultrathin devices.
Some of these phones are already available for purchase, like Samsung’s tri-fold Galaxy Z And Huawei’s Mate XT. Others are still concepts, like Tecno’s superthin Phantom Ultimate G Fold and his modular telephone. A handful of others I’ve seen are on their way to store shelves, like Honor’s robot phone and Motorola’s book style Razr Folding.
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As our smartphone options have expanded, our collective tastes have largely remained the same. Global foldable phone shipments reached a record 14% year-over-year growth in the third quarter of 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. But their share of the overall smartphone market was only 2.5% that quarter, keeping foldables firmly in the niche sector. Thin phones like Apple’s iPhone Air and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge have reportedly been disappointing, with marketing buzz not matching their real-world adoption. Even at a technical conference like CMMI’ve rarely seen attendees bring anything other than a standard panel phone.
“Just because something looks great doesn’t mean you ultimately want it,” Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC. told me in December.
Novelty and adoption remain two distinct spheres in the world of mobile design. It’s refreshing to see phone makers branching out into more ambitious form factors, but these configurations have yet to move from show-stopping to basic. And that may be intentional; something can only create buzz if not everyone has it. But the argument that there’s a lack of interesting phones loses merit with years of hardware innovation, even as flagship devices continue to look like copy-pasted versions of their predecessors.
Much of the gap between niche phone hype and adoption comes down to their you have to be more practical. Foldables, for example, have come a long way in improving camera quality And battery lifebut they still lag behind what you’ll get on high-end flat phones. The same goes for thin phones like the Galaxy S25 Edge and iPhone Air, which have lowered their specs in exchange for lighter versions. Until elegance can fully coexist with functionality, most people will continue to choose the latter.
Prices for single phones are also prohibitive. Book-style folding books cost around $2,000, and a tri-fold will cost you around $3,000. Even with their more limited capabilities, thinner and lighter phones tend to linger around $1,000.
Perhaps we are creatures of habit. I am guilty of this myself. After testing some of the most advanced phones on the market, I always go back to my old panel phones. They have everything I need – namely great cameras and long battery life – with no frills. For most of us, a single screen is more than enough for everyday tasks.
Sure, the phone in your pocket may look surprisingly similar to the one you used 10 years ago. But does it really matter if it still serves you well?
It’s great that cell phone companies are looking for ways to differentiate themselves, not only from each other, but also from their existing products. And I hope they continue to push those boundaries and move away from more predictable designs, if only to provide more choice for consumers.
But until more people choose to expand beyond familiar mobile designs, new mobile designs will remain firmly in the realm of feverish trade show fanfare and the occasional pocketbook.
