Tech is just fashion with batteries

Hey, it’s Mark in New York. Your next mobile phone will probably look a bit like your first one. But first…Three things you need to know tod [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey, it’s Mark in New York. Your next mobile phone will probably look a bit like your first one. But first… Three things you need to know today: • Meta shares climbed after revenue and forecast [beat estimates]( • AI leaders created an [industry watchdog]( • SEC set a four-day deadline for companies to [report hacks]( The second coming of the flip phone Fashion often comes in cycles. There’s debate about how long these cycles last — the late British historian James Laver suggested they take 30 years, now the consensus length is 20 or even less — but the basic idea remains: What’s cool today will be cool again in a generation. This theory stood on display, awkwardly and in pastels, on Wednesday during Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, a recurring showcase of Samsung Electronics Co.’s forthcoming smartphones, tablets and other gadgets. The entire event, which took place this week in Seoul, was an exercise in clashing aesthetics. Samsung seemed torn about whether to look to the future or to the past. The [centerpiece of the showcase]( were flip phones. Samsung held up the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which costs $999, as the premium mass-market product that will compete with the iPhone or Samsung’s own Galaxy S phones. It’s a clamshell smartphone with an additional screen on the front. Samsung smartly embraces the Flip’s nostalgic qualities. Its design is squarish, almost like a Motorola StarTAC, the grandfather of flip phones. The marketing features attractive people with clothing and haircuts evoking styles of the late ’90s and early 2000s, a wink at the idea that Samsung’s next big thing might look a lot like a previous big thing. Then the focus of the event suddenly shifted to the Galaxy Z Fold 5, a $1,799 phone that opens like a book into a tablet. The Fold is sci-fi. It was presented with holographic backdrops, surrounded by models pictured in black and white who look like replicants from Blade Runner. The device can run video games with “sharply rendered graphics and sophisticated AI algorithms,” Samsung said. If the Flip was fun, the Fold was serious. The more expensive phone also followed the purest conceit of technology: It’s the future. However, trends in tech are more likely to follow the Flip back into the past. The StarTAC is almost 30 years old, and next year is the 20th anniversary of the Motorola Razr, which marked the peak of the flip phone cycle. After the Razr, phones got keyboards. Then they got big screens. Then they got really big screens. Designers trying to buck the current fashion can get burned, as Apple did when it released the iPhone mini, which bombed. As Laver, the British historian, had said, a garment 10 years before its time is seen as “indecent” and one 10 years too late as “hideous.” The same seems true of gadgets. Samsung released its first Flip model in 2020. The Flip 5 (which is actually the fourth, but whatever) has the ingredients to push the format into the mainstream. Samsung indicated that it addressed the main complaints with the previous version: in particular, the size of the front screen and the reliability of the hinge. Samsung said its own research shows that more than half of its customers will consider the foldable or flip variety for their next phone. Electronics makers sold 14.2 million foldable and flip phones last year, according to the research firm IDC. That number is expected to triple over the next four years. IDC said it’s the one positive trend in an otherwise declining industry. Two to three decades after the last flip phone era, the laws of fashion dictate that it’s right on time. —[Mark Milian](mailto:mmilian@bloomberg.net) The big story With drought spreading around the globe, battles are emerging between data center operators and adjacent communities over [local water supplies]( in places such as Chile, Uruguay and parts of the southwestern US. One to watch [Watch the Bloomberg Technology TV interview]( with Rebecca Lynn, general partner at Canvas Ventures, on the state of venture capital. Get fully charged Samsung forecast a rebound for [memory and smartphones]( in the second half of the year, buoyed by AI demand. EBay projected earnings in the current quarter that [narrowly missed]( analysts’ estimates, suggesting the e-commerce company is struggling to perform with a shrinking customer base. Amazon’s cloud unit, determined to take on Microsoft and Google in the burgeoning market for generative AI, unveiled a range of [new AI products](, including a service that helps health-care providers summarize doctor visits and software that let companies create their own chatbots. Porsche is talking to potential financial and strategic partners to set up an [electric-vehicle battery]( factory that could cost as much as $3.3 billion. More from Bloomberg Get Bloomberg Tech newsletters in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends - [Hyperdrive]( for expert insight into the future of cars Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? 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