Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Apple's move into a new category always draws attention in Japan, and its habit of arriving late yet presenting the result as a fresh invention is an easy target. After Apple officially unveiled its foldable "iPhone Duo," the Japanese account of Motorola — a foldable maker since the RAZR era — posted "Welcome to the world of foldables, newcomer. We're already in our 22nd year," alongside images of its past devices. Netizens treated the sniping between Motorola, Samsung, and Huawei as pro-wrestling theater, while others cited market data showing Samsung retaking the top spot and Apple's shipments slipping. Some read Motorola's line as an homage to Apple's own 1981 "Welcome, IBM" ad. A separate thread on "what comes after foldables" filled up with free-wheeling guesses.

Key Reaction Themes

  • The most common strain personified the brands and staged a mock trash-talk match — Galaxy, Huawei, and Motorola sniping at one another.
  • Several grounded the fight in market share, citing surveys that put Samsung back on top and Apple's shipments in decline.
  • Views on Apple split — skeptics dismissed a late, pricey entry dressed up as innovation, while others expected a crease-free, polished result.
  • A separate thread imagined the next form factor — revolver phones, holograms, AR glasses, brain interfaces — plus a tech debate over cloud processing versus on-device AI.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Motorola taunts Apple's foldable entry on its official X

After Apple's iPhone Duo launch, Motorola's Japan account fires a welcome-to-the-club jab.

Comments:

  • Galaxy: "Are you even selling enough to talk big?"
  • Huawei: "You're still on a two-fold?"
  • "But Motorola only put out its own Fold this year, right?"
  • "Do people really want to fold their phones that badly?"
  • "Me on OPPO, watching from below — the latest model is ¥30,000, you know."
  • "Per Omdia, in Q2 2026 Samsung retook the top spot with 22% share (+2 points YoY). Counterpoint has the same period with Samsung first at 24% and Apple at 20% for the first time."
  • "Apple keeps sliding into decline."
  • "Counterpoint's full-year 2026 forecast has Samsung shipments +0.8% YoY and Apple down 2.1%, so it's over."
  • "But honestly there's no performance left to want from a phone — we're doing the same things as ten years ago."
  • Overseas Duo user: "How's that!" Overseas bros: "Awesome, so jealous!" Japanese Duo user: "How's that!" Us: "On an installment plan lol, a foldable lol, an iPhone lol."

Talk of the next smartphone shape

A chat thread imagines what comes after the foldable.

Sources: 2ch

Comments:

  • "A revolver phone."
  • "Bring on the microchip already."
  • "A hologram phone."
  • "Smart glasses."
  • "The kind that sends signals straight to your brain — hurry up with that."
  • "AR projection that puts the screen in mid-air."
  • "Already mentioned, but I think an AR glasses-type phone has a real shot."
  • "Just a flat slab of a comms device — search and everything gets thrown to AI over the network, basically a comms-only device that just offloads all the processing. Even for games, the phone itself wouldn't process anything; it'd all sit in the cloud and just communicate. I think that's where it goes."
  • "In terms of where tech is heading, 'just offloading' is already over; 'running AI locally' will be the coming trend."
  • "A Scouter-style phone. You operate it with a wristwatch — a hologram appears in front of you and you control it with the watch."