All's Quiet on Carrier Front as Delayed Galaxy Fold Misses Planned Friday Debut

The Samsung website showed no results when we hit the “where to buy” button Thursday for the indefinitely delayed Galaxy Fold smartphone, initially slated to go on sale Friday, before prerelease reviews reported that broken screens on the device were common (see 1904240027). Samsung's website listed AT&T and T-Mobile as carriers for the bendable Fold, but when we hit the “where to buy” button, the U.S. map directing shoppers to available markets came up empty, and a pop-up read “no online retailer.” When we searched for Samsung Fold at AT&T.com, a “page unresponsive” notice came up and we were redirected to a page for the Galaxy S10, S10+ and S10e phones, due in stores Friday. T-Mobile defaulted to a case for the Tab E Incipio tablet, which has a folding base. Verizon responded to a Fold search with the series 10 Galaxy phones in a redirect, along with a Samsung Chromebook Plus, Galaxy Book 2 and Belkin “tri-fold” case for the Galaxy Tab E. At Sprint, the first phone to pop up in a Fold search was the iPhone XR, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S10e. Meanwhile, Samsung emailed customers they can score a free SmartThings hub and up to $250 for a tablet trade-in when they buy the new Tab S5e tablet. The S5e starts at $399 for a 10.5-inch Wi-Fi version. At Samsung.com, the company is offering no-interest financing for the tablets on a six-month payment plan.