Update: Sales of Samsung Galaxy Fold Are Nowhere Near 1 Million Units
by Anton Shilov on December 12, 2019 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Foldable Smartphones
- Galaxy Fold
Update 12/14: While claims were earlier made by Samsung's Chief Strategy Officer that the company had sold 1 million Galaxy Folds, the company has since stepped in to correct the executive. Speaking to the Yonhap News Agency, the spokesperson said that "Sohn may have confused the figure with the company's initial sales target for the year." In actuality, the company's most recent comments are that it expects to sell half as many phones for the year.
While Samsung may have suffered a rather unforgettable snafu with their first attempt to launch their Galaxy Fold smartphone, following its re-launch a few months back, it looks like shipments of the cutting edge folding phone have turned out to be rather decent. Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin, Young Sohn, the president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics, stated that the company has sold about a million of the Galaxy Fold smartphones since its launch in September, a good start for the ultra-expensive phone.
Samsung formally introduced its Galaxy Fold at MWC 2019 in January and planned to start its sales in April. However, after it was discovered that its hinge needed reinforcements and the top protective layer of the Infinity Flex Display had to be redesigned, the company had to delay the device. In the end, the firm finished with refinements by late July and started shipments in late September after all re-qualifications had been made.
Samsung did not comment on how this delay affected the demand for its flagship smartphone. However, since the Galaxy Fold is the only foldable smartphone currently available outside of China, for the moment at least Samsung's $2000 foldable phone has the western market to itself.
Here is what Mr. Sohn said:
“And I think that the point is, we are selling [a] million of these products. There is a million people that want to use this product at $2,000.”
Related Reading:
- Samsung’s Galaxy Fold Hits the US on September 27th
- Samsung Unveils Galaxy Fold Availability, Sort Of
- Samsung Resolves Galaxy Fold Issues: New Launch In September
- Samsung Delays Launch of Galaxy Fold Smartphone
- Samsung: Galaxy Fold Is Tested to Fold/Unfold 200,000 Times
Source: TechCrunch
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qhd - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
So that's $2 billion in revenue from one experimental phone model, in a mere 3 months!Vitor - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
Not really. There is a considerable percentage to the store and suchSahrin - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
...I don't think you understand what 'revenue' means.Even if you wanted to back out the retailer and distributor's cut, that's a *maximum* of 30% (which would be a huge markup for a retailer on a cutting edge piece of hardware - retailers at game console launches, e.g., tend to get less than 5% of the purchase price, counting on peripheral sales to make money) which cuts it to $1.4B. Still very impressive.
flyingpants265 - Saturday, December 14, 2019 - link
Ah, so he was right then, it's not really $2 billion. Haha!Cliff34 - Thursday, December 19, 2019 - link
Have to keep in mind the blunder when they first released, have to recall, fix, and re-release again. I am sure the set back is costly.Though it is impressive for selling one mill units given is so expensive and has so many issues with it.
Kishoreshack - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
Even though I couldn't buy I was happy to see disruptive technologythey risked it & to some extent they got a positive response
this will encourage them to make a second version which will be even cheaper & better
hopefully we more companies making more such products
well that's how the industry will flourish
make something different from Normal usual boring phones
PeachNCream - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
“And I think that the point is, we are selling [a] million of these products. There are a million suckers willing to shell out $2,000 in order to upload unsightly selfies to Facebook.”Fixed that for ya, Mr. Sohn.
web2dot0 - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
When are people gonna call out the elephant in the room?Samsung tax? 🤣🤣🤣
Funny how that only applies to Apple huh.
Topweasel - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
Eh. An experimental proof of concept phone for 2k, vs 1.5 for an extra 256GB of Nand (where I got a 512GB 450MB/s read 375MB/s write USB drive for $40). On of those seems to be a "company tax" and the other seems to be an early adopter fee. Those are generally treated differently.liquid_c - Sunday, December 15, 2019 - link
Nice way of outlying the details. 1.5K $ for an extra 256gb as opposed to... what? Compared to... what? What are those extra 256gb added to? Or do you mean you have to pay 1.5K for the storage alone? Surely, that isn’t right. Also, NAND, as you so graciously put it, is also incorrect. Apple’s storage solutions have been pretty good and comparable with nowadays’ SSDs. Also, please upload a screenshot of the receipt for that wondrous 256gb, will you? I’m sorry to say but you tried to, graciously i might add, take a huge shit on Apple while defending Samsung (despite their blunders with the Fold’s launch). Also, i’m waiting for that printscreen of the receipt (this is my way of writing to you that i think you’re full of c*ap and a liar but hey, at least i was gracious about it, wasn’t i?).