On the morning of December 12th, when Seoul’s lowest temperature dropped to minus 3 degrees, a 29-year-old office worker named Jeong lined up in front of the ‘Samsung Gangnam’ store in Seocho District, Seoul, after taking half a day off from work. He was there to purchase Samsung Electronics’ first foldable smartphone with two folds, the ‘Galaxy Z Tri-Fold’. Ahead of Jeong, around 80 people were already waiting. At 9:30 a.m., as online sales began, Jeong also tried to access the site using his phone, but it crashed within two minutes. Jeong commented, “I joined the open run because I heard there weren’t many units, and I attempted to buy it online as well,” and added, “Fortunately, I could purchase it around 11:20 a.m. at the store.”
According to the IT industry on the 14th, Samsung Electronics sold out its first batch of the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold immediately after its domestic release on December 12th. The product received positive evaluations. Despite its success, the atmosphere within Samsung Electronics isn’t entirely optimistic. While the technology has been proven, the company struggles with a structure that doesn’t leave much profit margin even when sales increase.
The primary driving force behind Samsung’s release of the Tri-Fold was to showcase its technological prowess. Having introduced the world’s first single-fold foldable phone in 2019, Samsung was overtaken by Huawei with the release of its double-fold device. Huawei launched the ‘Mate XT’ last September and released the second-generation ‘Mate XTs’ this past September. For Samsung, it was imperative to demonstrate, “We can do it too.” Accordingly, Samsung Electronics DX Division Head, Roh Tae-moon, officially announced at the Galaxy Unpacked event in July that they were preparing to release a Tri-Fold phone within the year.
The product has received favorable responses post-release regarding its performance. Utilizing a ‘G-shaped’ in-fold mechanism, which folds both sides inward, it is considered more durable than Huawei’s Z-shaped ‘in-out folding’ (folding front to back) method. The smartphone features Qualcomm’s ‘Snapdragon 8 Elite’ application processor (AP), surpassing the performance of Huawei’s own AP (Kirin 9020) found in the Mate XTs. The device maintained an ultra-slim design with a thickness of 3.9mm when unfolded, similar to Huawei’s 3.6mm.
The price was set lower than expected, with the official retail price at 3,590,400 KRW. This is roughly 600,000 KRW cheaper than the Huawei Mate XTs 512GB model, which is priced at 19,999 yuan (4,190,000 KRW). Samsung Electronics’ Im Seong-taek, Korean Headquarters Vice President, mentioned in a media briefing on the 2nd that the pricing was “made difficult by reducing costs.”
The main challenge lies in the profit margin. The Tri-Fold phone integrates OLED panels and high-performance APs. Moreover, the rising cost of memory increases the production cost burden. Market research firm TrendForce predicts, “Dram contract prices in the fourth quarter will rise by over 75% year-on-year,” adding that “considering that memory accounts for 10-15% of the total component cost of a smartphone, this year’s smartphone prices will rise by approximately 8-10%.” Professor Lee Jong-hwan of Semyung University’s System Semiconductor Engineering Department commented, “Although there is a cost burden, setting the price too high might deter consumers, leading to a challenging situation for Samsung to navigate, leaving little room for profit.”
In practice, despite strong domestic sales, Samsung is said to be contemplating whether to expand its supply further. While increasing production is necessary to expand foldable market share and maintain a technology gap with Chinese companies, profitability pressures cannot be ignored. It’s estimated that domestically, 2,000 to 3,000 units, and globally, about 20,000 units of the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold have been produced.