Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced today that it’s canceling pre-orders of its Galaxy Fold folding phone unless those with orders opt in to keep it.

Meantime, Google LLC said for the first time that it’s working on similar devices, though not for release anytime soon.

The drama with the Galaxy Fold, the world’s first foldable smartphone launched Feb. 20, started with preview units shipped to tech reviewers breaking after two days of use in April.

Initially claiming that some of the tech reviewers broke the phone by removing a protective film on the devices, Samsung admitted April 22 that the phone had issues, announcing that the launch date was being pushed back to May.

It would appear that the problems with the phone remain. Samsung said in an email to customers with pre-orders that it cannot confirm an anticipated shipping date and hence would cancel the orders unless customers opted to keep them.

“If we do not hear from you and we have not shipped by May 31st, your order will be canceled automatically,” the email reads. Reuters noted that U.S. regulations require Samsung to do so.

Since Samsung announced the phone, Huawei Electronic Co. Ltd. was the second to market with its Mate X foldable phone. Unlike the Galaxy Fold, it has met with near-universal praise and at least so far has no issues.

While Motorola, Alcatel and BlackBerry Mobile are rumored to have foldable phones in the pipeline, a new entrant to the nascent space could possibly be Google — just not anytime in the near future.

In an interview with CNET ahead of its annual Google I/O conference near its headquarters, Mario Queiroz, vice president product management at Google, said the company has been working on foldable phones. Indeed, Google said today at the conference that the newest beta version of its Android Q mobile operating software that’s still in development includes features to make foldable phones more useful, such as continuity across the screen.

“We’re definitely prototyping the technology. We’ve been doing it for a long time,” Queiroz said. But he added, “I don’t think there’s a clear use case yet.”

Queiroz argued that while foldable phones appeal to those who want bigger screens, it’s not enough to spur consumer interest.

“I think it needs to be more innovative than that,” Queiroz explained. “The use case is going to need to be something where you go, ‘Hey, I definitely need to have this.’ Right now, you don’t need to have a foldable. It’s kind of a ‘nice-to-have.'”

Queiroz added that Google has no plans at the moment to go to market with a foldable phone.

With reporting from Robert Hof

Photo: Samsung