“Initial sales estimates from Samsung had suggested that the brand intended to sell about 500,000 units of the Galaxy Fold by end-2019.”
Samsung has reportedly sold about 400,000 to 500,000 units of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, according to Samsung’s mobile business chief, DJ Koh. The estimated figure was shared by Koh in an interview with the Korean Yonhap News Agency, revealing a new sales figure estimate for the Galaxy Fold after Samsung executive Young Sohn had previously (and erroneously) stated to the media that nearly one million units of the Galaxy Fold have already been sold globally. While Koh’s statement still sounds very tentative, and leaves open a wide room for speculation, it gives at least some idea as to how the world’s first foldable phone has been accepted.
In 2019, Samsung had laid out an estimate of selling one million units of the Galaxy Fold by the end of the year. However, the first batch of Galaxy Fold smartphones were withdrawn even before launch, as pre-launch product reviews started revealing that the foldable display of the smartphone was breaking very easily. The Fold’s exorbitant pricing made matters even worse, and Samsung cancelled its original product launch date and went back to the drawing board with its Galaxy Fold. The Korean electronics giant then returned with a reinforced Galaxy Fold, in line with Koh apologising for the mess-up, and stating that his company jumped the gun with the Fold in order to beat other OEMs to launching a foldable device.
While Samsung may have been able to sell more units of the Fold had they managed to stick to the original launch timeline, and had the breaking screen fiasco not happened, one cannot conclusively state that the company may have been able to meet its original target of selling one million Galaxy Fold units by 2019. Instead, it then offered a revised target of selling 500,000 units of the Fold by end-2019, and Koh’s statement does not help investors, stakeholders and market watchers determine whether it did manage to meet its target. For what it’s worth, selling 400,000 units of the Fold would still mean Samsung fell short of its target by nearly 20 percent.
Nevertheless, it is still an impressive feat to have sold close to half a million units of a smartphone that is essentially a first-generation proof of concept that foldable phones can work as mainstream products in the years to come. Since the Galaxy Fold premiered, Motorola has unveiled its own foldable phone under the nostalgic Razr brand, and Huawei has launched its Mate X, albeit only in China. Samsung is also said to be working on a second-generation Galaxy Fold that may take cues from the Motorola Razr, and it will be interesting to see whether 2020 becomes the year for foldable phones to break out of their niche.
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