Google is set to launch its first foldable smartphone in June, with plans to unveil the device at its annual developer conference, Google I/O, on 10 th of May. The smartphone, called The Pixel Fold, is expected to be powered by Google's Tensor G2 chip and is likely to compete with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 4, with a price tag exceeding 1,700 USD. Currently, Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola account for approximately 80% of the foldable phone market share, recent data showed. The report also noted that Samsung is considering dropping Google's search engine in favour of Microsoft's Bing.

Despite Wall Street's reassurances that Google's position as Samsung's search engine partner is not at risk, the search engine giant continued to slide for the second consecutive day. Samsung was considering replacing Google's search engine on its devices with Microsoft's Bing. However, UBS has downplayed the likelihood of such a loss, stating that it is improbable and any such discussions, if happening at all, would be more for negotiation purposes. But the warning is more than serious because Bing has integrated the new AI chatbot – ChatGPT, which is expected to attract many new users and make them switch from the existing browser.

Sources:

https://tradingeconomics.com/goog:us

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/google-reportedly-eyes-launch-of-first-foldable-phone-in-june-cnbc-3058641

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-reportedly-eyes-launch-first-170500876.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/google-pixel-fold-release-date.html

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/04/18/google-pixel-fold-june-launch/#:~:text=Google%20in%20June%20plans%20to,in%20line%20with%20Samsung's%20pricing