Samsung: We've sold 1 million of the Galaxy Fold foldable phone
Samsung may have sold up to a million Galaxy Fold smartphones worldwide since kicking off sales in the US in late September.
Mobility
Samsung Electronic's president Young Sohn made the claim about Galaxy Fold sales at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Berlin yesterday.
"And I think that the point is, we're selling [a] million of these products. There's a million people that want to use this product at $2,000," Sohn said.
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Samsung got off to a bumpy start with the Galaxy Fold, which opens to become a 7.3-inch tablet. The Fold was announced in February, but when reviewers got their hands on the device they quickly damaged the device's sensitive screen. Samsung then delayed the consumer launch for three months.
The device has received mixed reviews. However, ZDNet's Matthew Miller says that after one month with the Galaxy Fold it's "been my favorite device in years".
Nonetheless, $2,000 is a lot of money for a fragile foldable. ZDNet's sister site CNET ran fold tests and found it could be opened and closed 120,000 times before the hinge action began to wear and half the screen blacked out. Testers were aiming to open and shut it 200,000 times to represent daily usage over five years.
Samsung Galaxy Fold first look: in pictures
Sohn said Samsung was fine with selling a $2,000 device that is a beta product and that the sales number justified its decision.
The mobile industry hopes that currently very expensive foldables catch on with consumers. Motorola recently revamped the Razr brand with its $1,500 foldable, which goes on sale in January. Huawei's $2,600 Mate X is available for now only in China. Even Microsoft is giving the category a go with the Android Surface Duo, which should be available in late 2020.