For more than a decade, the iPhone defined the overall shape and style of a smartphone. Despite Apple’s patent litigation against its main rival Samsung, that simple and iconic concept of a black rectangular touchscreen with rounded corners has been mimicked by manufacturers the world over.
在长达10多年的时间里，iPhone曾定义智能手机的总体形状和样式。尽管苹果(Apple)对其主要竞争对手三星(Samsung)提起专利诉讼，但边角圆润的黑色矩形触屏这一简单而具有标志性的概念一直被全球制造商模仿。
Rising demand from billions of new customers meant that, for many years, handset makers could get away with little real differentiation and still prosper, especially as Google’s low-cost Android operating system swept the market.
来自数十亿新客户日益上升的需求意味着，在很多年里，手机制造商尽管没什么真正的差异化，却仍能经营得风生水起，尤其是随着谷歌(Google)的低成本安卓(Android)操作系统席卷市场。
However, after a bruising 2018 that saw the industry’s first decline in sales volumes, this is shaping up to be the year that smartphone designs are finally starting to evolve. The first major change: folding phones.
然而，令人痛苦的2018年见证了该行业销量首次下滑，今年智能手机设计终于开始发生演变。第一个重大变化：折叠屏手机。
“Clearly there is a need for differentiation but the technology was not ready to bring that differentiation to life,” said Francisco Jeronimo, a devices analyst at research group IDC. “Flexible displays are opening that door. [They are] unleashing the creativity of those brands that are seeing the market getting to saturation levels.”
“差异化的需要是明显存在的，但是此前技术还没有发展到足以把这种差异化变成现实，”研究机构IDC的设备分析师弗朗西斯科•热罗尼莫(Francisco Jeronimo)表示，“柔性显示屏正打开这扇门，释放各品牌的创造性，而这些品牌正看到市场达到饱和水平。”
Conor Pierce, corporate vice-president at Samsung UK & Ireland, said: “The market needs it.”
三星英国及爱尔兰公司副总裁康诺•皮尔斯(Conor Pierce)表示：“市场需要它。”
“I think people have become slightly apathetic about the same form factor over a number of years,” he added. “This is really exciting — a new era of how we interact with technology.”
“我认为，人们对于多年延续同一外形已变得有些倦怠，”他补充称，“折叠屏手机真的令人振奋，它开启了我们与科技互动的一个新时代。”