Manufacturers like Samsung and Nokia had the freedom to push out whacky devices they liked into relatively innocent and emerging market. It's also worth remembering that Apple didn't even exist in the mobile space a few years back. Things have moved on a great deal in the last decade, but it seems certain markets are still hungry for the old-school designs of yesteryear. And now, Samsung is still keen to supply new and innovative clamshell style devices to those markets.
