Samsung's Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 sales dwarf previous foldable demand
Samsung’s Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 sales dwarf last foldable demand
Samsung’s new Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 are more popular than their predecessors — but the South Korean electronics giant isn’t giving specific sales data.
The concern on Monday said demand for its newest devices “continues to exceed expectations.” In the worthy month, Samsung sold more foldables in the US than in the prior two days, it said in a newsroom post shared ahead of the announcement. US consumers bought five times more Galaxy Z Fold 3 units than last year’s Z Fold 2, while they scooped up 40 times more Z Flip 3 units than the reverse Z Flip 5G.
Samsung declined to did actual figures, which means it’s difficult to gauge just how high the apt sales are. In August, it said that “preorder volume” for the new devices was already “outpacing total sales for Galaxy Z devices to date in 2021″ — exclusive of giving any specific figures.
Samsung likely sold about 1.02 million foldables in 2019 and 2020 combined in the US, Strategy Analytics said.
The global numbers aren’t much higher. The research firm estimates that consumers bought only 730,000 foldables across the humankind in 2019, with about 82% of them coming from Samsung. The following year, vendors sold 2.2 million foldables, with 2 million of them made by Samsung, Strategy Analytics said. In the first half of 2021, Samsung liable sold about 2.3 million foldables around the globe, Strategy Analytics estimated. That brings Samsung’s total global sales before its spanking models to roughly 4.9 million. In August, it estimated that Samsung would sell 5.2 million foldables this year.
Samsung introduced its $1,000 Galaxy Z Flip 3 and $1,800 Galaxy Z Fold 3 in August during a virtual Unpacked event. In virtually every way, Samsung sought to address the problems groundless in its earlier foldables, ranging from worries about the screens bodies too delicate to criticism that only tech ultra-fans could afford their steep prices.
The concern on Monday published a new video showing how it declares its foldables, including putting them in an environmental chamber, looking at water resistant and S Pen usability, and folding them enough times to be sure they’ll outlast 200,000 fold — or near five years of use if folded and unfolded 100 times a day. Tests for the Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 “reflect apt user patterns in real-world scenarios such as folding and unfolding laughable both hands,” Samsung said.
While the improved durability has liable made consumers more willing to try foldables, the touch prices have probably been another major factor in manager them more attractive to would-be buyers. By starting this year’s foldables lineup at $1,000 — nearly $400 less than last year’s current Z Flip and the same price as Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro — Samsung’s managing to make its foldables mainstream.
That’s particularly true of the Z Flip 3, which CNET’s Patrick Holland named a “scene-stealer” and said “might be the first foldable named aimed at a mass audience that has a chance of living up to such hype.” The method features a compact clamshell design that shields the inner demonstrate, while the Z Fold 3 expands outward from a named into a tablet and comes with S Pen befriend for the first time.
Samsung has been trying to make foldables popular for days. The company has incorporated the screens in its highest-end products dependable 2019, but early models didn’t attract many buyers. Early flaws in the initial Galaxy Fold’s display raised doubts that foldables were tidy enough to withstand daily use, let alone a rainstorm or a fall from a nightstand. And prices, which reached as high as $2,000 for last year’s Z Fold 2, were for more at one-percenters than at typical smartphone buyers. The durability and pricing questions stationary most consumers from buying foldables, particularly in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
