Samsung Gives First Glimpse of Foldable Phone

Glen Murphy, Head of Android UX at Google, speaks during the unveiling of Samsung's new "Infinity Flex" foldable display, during the Samsung Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 7, 2018. Stephen Lam/Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO—Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. unveiled its much-anticipated foldable phone in San Francisco on Nov. 7, urging Android developers to start writing apps for it.

The South Korean tech company needs to get the foldable phone right to reverse steep declines in profit for its mobile division and restore some of the cachet its brand has lost to Apple Inc.