Almost…
Consumer electronics can be a hit or miss business, with initial seemingly spectacular ideas either falling short with consumers or never getting off the ground at all, but some ideas or products were destined for problems right from the start, and as we close what was a very unusual year for consumer electronics, we highlight one of the exceptional ones.
In 2019 the brother of late drug cartel top dog Pablo Escobar became a smartphone entrepreneur by releasing the ‘Escobar Fold’, a $350 foldable smartphone that turned out to be a Royole (pvt) FlexPai with a gold laminate emblazoned with Pablo Escobar’s initials, which covered up the Royole logo (sorry for the misogynistic photo, but that was the ad for the device, not surprisingly…). Unfortunately, many customers sent in their money, expecting what was then an almost $2,000 smartphone to be shipped to them for $350 and for some reason, did not receive their phone.
In 2019 the brother of late drug cartel top dog Pablo Escobar became a smartphone entrepreneur by releasing the ‘Escobar Fold’, a $350 foldable smartphone that turned out to be a Royole (pvt) FlexPai with a gold laminate emblazoned with Pablo Escobar’s initials, which covered up the Royole logo (sorry for the misogynistic photo, but that was the ad for the device, not surprisingly…). Unfortunately, many customers sent in their money, expecting what was then an almost $2,000 smartphone to be shipped to them for $350 and for some reason, did not receive their phone.
The Escobar Fold - Source: Escobar Inc.
As if not enough smartphone buyers had been scammed with the Escobar Fold, the ‘company’ released the Escobar Fold 2 this year for a mere $400, which turned out to be a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 with a similar gold foil covering the brand name. Strangely it seems that customers who sent in their money did not received this year’s model either, but likely that’s due to a shortage of gold foil…
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