There are plenty of people who want to buy a foldable smartphone but are taken aback by the prices. Well, not anymore, if we go by the reports and insider sources. 

Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Experience (MX) division has begun devising a plan to produce entry-level affordable Galaxy Z foldable smartphones.

Recently Samsung has improvised a plan to produce affordable mid-range foldable smartphones like its Z series, which will take more than inspiration from the Galaxy A series. 

We already know that Samsung wants to reduce the production cost of the Galaxy Z series, but it will remain in the ultra-premium device segment.

Samsung targets the price range of under KRW 1 million, which is around 769.99 United States dollars, i.e. a significant reduction from KRW 1.25 and 2 million as of last year for the Galaxy Z series.

So how exactly will Samsung do this? We will tell you about that but let’s take a look at what the data suggests.

The Reports & Statistics For the Smartphone market Share: What They Suggest.

According to a report by Counterpoint, The sales volume for Foldable grew 184% YoY in the premium segment, acquiring 3% of the total sales volume in the premium segment.

This is in a single-digit; however, the growth we see here is tremendous, a leaping 184%. 

This is why Samsung is very keen on investing in this sector. It provides two benefits to the company i.e. 

• Making its grasp on the foldable markets and establishing itself as a forerunner with almost no competition.
• Showing its prowess in this new field of foldable tech hence gaining trust and reputation in the industry as well as amongst consumers.

This makes sense because lately, the Galaxy S22 Ultra was followed by Galaxy A13 with 1.4%, Galaxy A03 Core with Galaxy 1.4%, and Galaxy A53 5G with 1.3% for Samsung in terms of global premium market sales.

So after the Galaxy S series, only the Galaxy A series is seeing this amount of success for Samsung in the market.

Samsung Electronics targets to increase the sale of foldable phones from 10 million to 15 million units.

Currently, Samsung acquires around 90% of foldable market shares, but it constitutes mainly the Galaxy Z series. Sure everyone desired the Galaxy Z series Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3, but again, the price threw off many people from purchasing the devices. 

The Plan: Road to the more affordable foldable devices

This is where the expected hybrid between the Galaxy Z and Galaxy A series comes into play; with both of their advantages, Samsung can target more customers and ultimately acquire a double-digit share. 

To achieve this, Samsung has decided to plan for the production of a foldable economic series. 

If we go by the insider media accounts, the Galaxy A series will be transformed into a foldable smartphone, omitting the premium features in the flagship devices and providing the entry-mid range functions. 

It’s not been long since we heard about the acquisition of Cynora GmBh for 300 million US dollars. Cynora GmbH specializes in developing and manufacturing organic electronics. Samsung wants to further advance its foldable clamshell-designed devices, namely the Galaxy Z series. 

Samsung is also investing in the new OCR to replace OCA for the flexible display, i.e. placed a PO (Purchase Order) for shipment of OCR to STI, a moderate-level display equipment company recently. An OCR optically clear resin is a liquid optical bonding material, which is injected between the touch panel and the LCD, and then cured by heat or UV light. This will reduce the manufacturing cost even further, making the foldable even more affordable.

Conclusion:

India and other developing countries are shifting more towards the ultra-premium segment, and the mid-range is already a huge market dominated by Samsung. If Samsung can achieve this goal, then it will get the best of both worlds.

Samsung’s top models made up just 22% of its total sales. So to give competition to other companies which are anticipated to enter the flexible display technology for foldable such as Apple & Alphabet Inc. and the Chinese, of course, which plans to enter this segment, Samsung wants to capture the whole market by itself. 

Apple took 62% of the premium market in Q1 2022 with sales in April 2022 with the Apple models in the top 10, accounting for 89% of its total sales for the month, due to iPhone 13,iPhone 13 Pro Max,iPhone 13 Pro & iPhone 12 grabbing the top 4 spots in terms of market sales shares. Now Samsung has to be on top in one of the criteria of the smartphones market shares, and will this be the kingmaker move Samsung expects, we will have to find out in the upcoming years as Samsung plans to release these entry-level & mid-budget foldable phones around 2024.

We have seen a breakthrough in technology by introducing the clamshell foldable Galaxy Z series smartphones. However, those were not the fruits everyone could afford. But now it seems Samsung wants to make their Galaxy Z series in more people’s reach by further reducing the cost of manufacturing the devices and introducing a hybrid type phone.

If readers want, they can read even more about the sales and data of the smartphone market simplified and other important developments for them in the below links.

• Price Conversions are subject to changes.
• Reports based on Counterpoint data Analysis.

Sources & references:

• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G Dominates The Flagship Android Market: Globally
• ET News