South Africa: Samsung SA Digs in Heels Over Foldables for Premium Market Despite Global Slowdown

Samsung Mobile SA updated its pricing and model availability for its new folding phones as it moves to extract value from the premium market.

Samsung Mobile SA updated its pricing and model availability for its new folding phones as it moves to extract value from the premium market.

Samsung declined to respond to questions about the recent price increases on the Galaxy Fold 7 and Flip 7 or the disappearance of the 256GB Fold 7 variant from its South African online store. That silence is telling, especially in a market where smartphone sales are slowing and consumers are squeezed.

"Fold users typically remain the most loyal... they upgrade more, and they upgrade faster," Samsung Mobile SA's VP for Mobile Justin Hume told Daily Maverick at the local launch. "The base is growing every year."

Samsung is banking, once again, on deep-pocketed loyalists, an expanding ecosystem and some health tech to keep its margins intact.

Foldable flatline

Globally, foldable smartphones are hitting turbulence. In the first quarter of this year, foldables made up just 1.5% of total smartphone sales in Europe, with year-on-year growth of only 4%, according to Counterpoint Research. That's a sharp slowdown from previous years, and some analysts are calling it a warning sign.

"Most consumers are still not sure what a foldable phone is for," said Counterpoint's Jan Stryjak. "And many...

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