Samsung appears to be close to announcing a major new phone at an app developers' conference in San Francisco starting on Wednesday - and it could be the next big thing we've all been waiting for.

What's the big deal? The South Korean tech giant is rumoured to release the first major smartphone with a screen that you can fold in half, possibly allowing the phone to double as a tablet.

As of yet, not much is known about the new phone - and even whether it will be successful, as some analysts doubt consumers are interested in having a foldable smartphone.

However Samsung has all but confirmed widespread rumours of the phone's impending release by updating its social media pages with various images of folding text and logos.

Almost certain to come with a hefty price tag, the new phone should help users forget the disastrous Galaxy Note debacle that forced countless phones to be recalled in 2016 after it emerged the Note 7 model was prone to spontaneously bursting into flames.

One Samsung official was quoted telling Reuters news agency the product is "a completely new concept in terms of design and user experience," one that will likely put it in a separate category to smartphones.

It's also expected to bear little resemblance to the flip phones of yore, nor to an early concept video of a folding phone released by Samsung in 2014.

Although there is no launch date yet, experts expect the phone will hit the markets in the first half of 2019.

China's Huawei has also announced plans to present a new foldable smartphone in mid-2019, whereas another China-based company, Royole, has already unveiled a foldable phone priced at 1,300 dollars, which will go on sale in December.