Samsung’s latest foldables, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, are off to a great start, with pre-orders breaking records and even catching Sammy by surprise.
In India, Samsung ran out of stock about two days after opening pre-orders. Over 210,000 units were pre-ordered in just 48 hours, and the company admitted it had not expected such demand.
No wonder they were shocked, the Fold 7 starts at $2,000, and even the smaller Flip goes for $1,100.
The story is the same elsewhere. In South Korea, Samsung’s home turf, the new foldables racked up over 1.04 million pre-orders during their launch week, up from 910,000 last year.
But here’s the crazy stat: for the first time, the Fold outsold the Flip, taking over 60% of those orders. That’s super impressive, considering the Flip has always been the more popular, mainstream foldable.
Digging into the demographics, Samsung revealed that young men made up 83% of Fold buyers in Korea, while the Flip continues to attract more women, with 59% of its buyers being female.
In the United States, Samsung says pre-orders for the Fold 7 surpassed the combined total of all previous Fold generations. Carrier pre-orders were up 60% compared to last year, and overall pre-orders for both devices jumped by 25% year-on-year.
Over in Europe, the Fold 7 is also outperforming its predecessor, with pre-orders up by over 50%.
Across the board, the Blue Shadow colour variant has proven wildly popular, accounting for around 40–50% of orders, depending on the model.
Back at headquarters, Samsung is increasing production plans in response. The company is now expected to produce 2.4 million Fold 7 units, up from last year’s 2.2 million.
However, not all foldables are created equal: production of the Flip 7 FE has reportedly been halved, suggesting that the cheaper Flip may not be finding an audience. Nobody wants the broke boy Flip 7 FE, even at $900. Can you imagine?
It’s early days, but this year’s launch shows that Sammy got it right. The Fold is no longer just for early adopters or tech journalists. It’s starting to appeal to a broader audience, and Samsung’s supply chain is scrambling to keep up.
The new phones appeal to me for the first time, but my wallet told me to be humble and to sit down.
In all this, remember Samsung only needs to sell 500,000 Fold 7 devices to hit $1 billion in revenue. They have about 600,000 (1m * 60%) pre-orders in South Korea alone.
Globally, foldables alone will bring Samsung billions in revenue this year, no problem at all. It shows the kind of scale Sammy, and even more so, Apple, operate at.
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