Samsung sold close to half a million Galaxy Folds

The troubled and highly expensive Samsung Galaxy Fold finally launched in September 2019 in the US and other parts of the world. This week, a Samsung company executive stated Galaxy Fold sales numbers for the past year were between 400,000 and 500,000 units worldwide. Those numbers are apparently what the company had expected to sell for their first foldable smartphone.

The unit sales numbers were revealed this week by Koh Dong-jin,  president and CEO of Samsung’s IT & Mobile Communication division. According to the Korean-based Yonhap News Agency, Koh Dong-jin made his remarks to reporters in Las Vegas during the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show. In December, Samsung Electronics’ President Young Sohn was quoted as saying that the Galaxy Fold sale numbers had actually reached 1 million units, but that figure was quickly refuted officially by the company.

The smartphone was supposed to launch in late April 2019. However, issues with the device’s display and its flexible hinge were discovered by media outlets who had received early review units. The Galaxy Fold’s launch was delayed until September to fix those problems. However, the phone’s nearly $2,000 price tag, along with its limited overall availability, were likely the reasons why Samsung kept its sales estimates on the low side.

Samsung is rumored to launch a second foldable phone with a flexible display in early 2020. The Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 is expected to use a flip-phone clamshell design this time, similar to the upcoming Motorola Razr smartphone reboot. A new, but unconfirmed report this week claimed the Fold 2 would use the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor.  In theory, using the nearly year-old chip in the Galaxy Fold 2 could make it cheaper to buy than the current Fold model.

Samsung is expected to officially reveal the Galaxy Fold 2 on February 11 as part of its latest Samsung Unpacked press event.