Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, the folding smartphone with a shaky history and a $1,980 price tag, is selling surprisingly well.
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin on Thursday, Samsung Electronic’s president Young Sohn said the company is “selling (a) million of these products.”
“There’s a million people that want to use this product at $2,000 each,” he said. “We sold one million products.”
Sohn was also asked whether the company feels comfortable selling what is essentially a beta device for as much as $2,000. “It’s still good enough in my view,” he said, and explained that putting the Fold in the hands of the consumers gives the company much-needed feedback.
“This is gen 1, and you’re going to see this product get better and better, and thinner and lighter, with a longer battery life,” he said.
The Galaxy Fold was originally scheduled to be launched in April 2019, but that was canceled after reviewers reported numerous issues with their review units. After several delays, a revamped version of the Fold was eventually launched in September.
Reviewers mostly praised the Fold’s coolness factor and the foldable display, but most noted that the software needs a lot more polish, among other issues.
Despite these issues, it appears that there’s quite a bit of interest for the Fold. One million units sold in roughly three months is a respectable number — it may be a drop in the bucket for Samsung’s overall smartphone sales, but those other phones don’t cost two thousand bucks.
Reports say that Samsung plans to launch another, cheaper foldable phone next February, followed by a proper Galaxy Fold successor later in 2020.
