*By Madison Alworth*
Samsung revealed this week that, by the end of 2018, the company will unveil its first flexible and foldable smartphone screen. [But this is a promise Samsung Mobile CEO DJ Koh has been making for years, and many are skeptical that he'll actually deliver, said lead mobile analyst at PC Mag Sascha Segan. ](https://www.pcmag.com/news/363518/samsung-mobile-chief-says-foldable-phone-coming-this-year)
"He was talking about this a year and a half ago. I feel like this is DJ Koh's white whale," [Segan said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar. ](https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367064,00.asp)
But Segan, despite his doubts, still understands why the mobile giant is pursuing the strategy so aggressively.
"This is the transformation in a phone's form factor that finally makes Samsung products different and more innovative than every other black slab on the market," he said.
Cell phone distributors are looking for compelling reasons to get consumers in the door. It has been a dull year for cell phone sales as replacement cycles get longer and consumers continue to hold out for 5G. Samsung has felt the slide. Sales in Q2 were down 4 percent from a year ago, and Samsung cited ["softer sales of smartphones"](https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-announces-second-quarter-2018-results) as a major cause of the slump.
[Samsung is hoping foldable displays are the solution to its sales problem.](https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2483688,00.asp) After all, they do seem to fit consumer demands, Segan said.
"They want bigger screens but not bigger phones, because their hands aren't getting any bigger," he said.
If Samsung is able to succeed in its efforts, it could get a leg up on competition.
"If they can perfect foldable screens first, that makes it clear that everyone else is going to need to go to Samsung when they want the best displays," Segan said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/samsung-shocks-with-big-news).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
