If the foldable devices from Samsung interest you but their prices are a little high for your liking, Samsung might already have something in the works for you.
Et News, an online Korean publication, reports that Samsung’s Electronics Experience Mobile Division (MX) has already started product planning and development for the launch of a midrange version of the Galaxy Z Fold and the Galaxy Z Flip.
The prices of the Galaxy foldables are ridiculously high at the moment, although Samsung has been trying to find ways to bring their prices down to a more acceptable amount. However, they still remain firmly in the high-end segment.
Despite this, the foldables have been slowly gaining market share as more people try out the new form factor. To further grow this, and take the market share of foldable devices into double digits, Samsung is reportedly looking to introduce foldable devices that would retail at a price under 800 dollars (Kshs 94,000)
This price is admittedly still on the higher side, but it is a massive cut from the existing Galaxy foldables with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 retailing as high as Kshs 250,000. The new strategy from Samsung is to create a foldable device that has the specifications of a Galaxy A series device.
Et News mention that the core parts of the foldable mid-ranger have already been settled upon by the company, and it also possesses a few features found on high-end phones, although the publication fails to mention what exactly these features are.
We earlier reported that Samsung has a lot of smartphones yet to be sold, 50 million devices to be exact; however, this reduction in demand for Samsung smartphones seems not to be affecting the demand for the Galaxy foldables.
In fact, Samsung has raised the foldable phone shipment target from 10 million units to 15 million units for the year 2022. The South Korean company is looking to capture the biggest market possible for its foldable devices before Apple launches their own version of the foldable smartphone in 2025.
Various reports indicate that Apple will first launch their folding phone in China, where Samsung does not actively sell its devices. This will be an effective way for Apple to gain some market share as Samsung are already in their third generation foldable while Apple is yet to release their first.
Taking into consideration that people are more willing to try out new form factors after the slab design of the modern smartphone has become a little stale over the past few years, Samsung planning to release a folding phone that is affordable could be a shrewd business decision that will win them a lot of fans and make them a lot of money in the long run.
