iFixit – the website where engineers break apart new technology to see how repairable everything is – has pulled its Galaxy Fold analysis after pressure from Samsung.
While it’s not unexpected that Samsung would have been unhappy with the coverage, which highlighted how fragile the device was as well as how debris could damage the screen, the manner in which the company made the request is certainly unusual. Rather that going to iFixit directly, Samsung approached the third party that provided the site with the unit.
Nonetheless, Samsung has got what it wanted, even though there may be a certain degree of ‘careful what you wish for’ given the existence of the Internet Archive, where nothing is ever really deleted from the web.
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“We were provided our Galaxy Fold unit by a trusted partner,” iFixit wrote in a blog post explaining the content removal. “Samsung has requested, through that partner, that iFixit remove its teardown. We are under no obligation to remove our analysis, legal or otherwise. But out of respect for this partner, whom we consider an ally in making devices more repairable, we are choosing to withdraw our story until we can purchase a Galaxy Fold at retail.”
Getting the post removed from the site is a strange goal for Samsung, considering the wide coverage the analysis has already received, and can still easily be found with a simple Google search. While it’s not exactly flattering, asking a site to remove something often backfires, generating more interest in the content the offended party was keenest to hide.
Given Samsung has delayed the release of the Galaxy Fold to improve the design, it’s possible it simply didn’t want the outdated teardown on the web. Or maybe it was simply embarrassed that iFixit was able to see design flaws that its own engineers missed over months of testing. Maybe the partner was never supposed to give iFixit the unit in the first place, and Samsung is just retreating to overzealous housekeeping?
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We don’t know, just as we don’t know when Samsung will bring the Fold back to market – if at all. The company says it will be released at some point, but then it also said it was going to arrive last week until it wasn’t.
In other words, Samsung has shown it isn’t shy of changing plans at short notice. Much will presumably depend on the improvements the company can make to its design over the coming weeks.
Will the Galaxy Fold ever be released? Let us know what you think on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.