Samsung reveals Galaxy Fold sales numbers (Update: Eh, not really)

Update, December 13, 2019 (10:42 AM ET): It appears the source of yesterday’s news regarding Samsung Galaxy Fold sales numbers was not entirely accurate. Although a Samsung executive said, live on stage, that Samsung has sold “a million of these products,” he could have been mistaken.

According to Yonhap News Agency (h/t SamMobile), the Samsung employee in question might have mistaken Samsung’s internal goal of selling a million units of the Fold before the end of 2019 as an actual sales figure. However, the Samsung Galaxy Fold sales numbers do not amount to 1 million units, at least not yet.

Samsung didn’t elaborate on how many devices were actually sold, but we now know it was less than a million. Oh well.

Original article, December 12, 2019 (01:06 PM ET): Today, Samsung Electronic’s President Young Sohn revealed on stage for the first time some Samsung Galaxy Fold sales figures. The announcement came during the TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin event (via TechCrunch).

According to Young Sohn, Samsung has sold at least 1 million Galaxy Fold devices globally.

“And I think that the point is, we’re selling [a] million of these products,” Sohn said on stage. “There’s a million people that want to use this product at $2,000.”

Apparently, Sohn felt comfortable dishing the Samsung Galaxy Fold sales numbers to help emphasize that there is, in fact, a market for incredibly expensive smartphones. The Galaxy Fold starts at $1,980 for the 4G LTE version here in the United States, and the 5G variant — which isn’t available in the US — starts at 2.398 million Korean won (~$2,038.60).

Related: Samsung Galaxy Fold review: Day 4 — The epic conclusion and verdict

We know for a fact that the phone’s high price isn’t scaring away Canadian buyers. An official Samsung partner revealed to Android Authority today that Canada is almost completely sold out of Galaxy Fold devices, and the phone only hit store shelves on December 6. In Canada, the Fold starts at CA$2,600 (~$1,972.67).

While these Samsung Galaxy Fold sales numbers seem to be pretty strong, they obviously are nothing when compared to Samsung’s primary flagship lines, such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 family. Halfway through 2019, Samsung had already moved 16 million devices in the S10 family, which includes the Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, S10e, and S10 5G.

Still, these Samsung Galaxy Fold sales numbers do tell an interesting story: even with an incredibly high price tag and a disastrous launch, Samsung can still sell a million units of an innovative smartphone.