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Samsung’s working on a phone with a terabyte of storage but a Chinese company beat them to it
Smartisan's 1TB smartphone wasn’t enough to save it from financial trouble
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Samsung plans to make smartphones with 1 terabyte of storage. It hopes that it will be a game-changer in bringing a more “notebook-like user experience” to phones.
But this apparent game-changer has actually already happened -- in China. And guess what? Nobody bought it.
In May 2018, Smartisan introduced the R1 smartphone featuring 1TB of storage. During the launch, the company’s charismatic -- or, as some would say, loudmouth -- founder Luo Yonghao said that Apple “will copy us like crazy.” (Apple has yet to release a smartphone with 1TB of storage.)
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At the same time, Smartisan unveiled a multi-touch display called the TNT Workstation, powered solely by the R1 smartphone. Luo said the Workstation will “redefine the PC for the next decade.” But netizens expressed skepticism that Smartisan’s demo video was real, and the TNT Workstation doesn’t appear to have ever been released.
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Smartisan is now on shaky ground. Despite its fan base, the company has only managed to sell 3 million handsets in 4 years, according to media reports. That’s less than a month's sales from major manufacturers.
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