An order for a foldable smartphone from the company of the brother of drug lord Pablo Escobar has resulted in the delivery of a Samsung Galaxy Fold with a sticker. Marques Brownlee, known by his YouTube name MKBHD, suspects that he was supplied the product as YouTuber to generate media attention, but that other orders are never delivered.
Roberto Escobar presented the device called Escobar Fold 1 in December. A few weeks later, the Escobar Fold 2 came on the market. The smartphones are said to cost several hundred dollars, a lot cheaper than foldable phones marketed by major brands.
“The Galaxy Fold costs $ 1,800, and the Escobar Fold 2 costs $ 400. So … how do they do this?” Brownlee wonders. “My theory is that they go through the orders, pick out YouTubers’ names and tech media people, then send them the phones. And they just don’t ship the rest.”
In this way, Escobar, who co-founded the Medellín Cartel and traded cocaine with his brother, who died in 1993, would earn money from customers who place an order but never get it delivered. How many people place an order with Escobar Inc. and how many of them have been delivered is not clear.
The original Escobar Fold is actually a FlexPai, a concept phone from the Chinese brand Royole, which was launched in early 2019 first manufacturer presented a smartphone with a folding screen. Meanwhile, in addition to Samsung, Huawei and Motorola have also launched a (legitimate) foldable smartphone.
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