Today at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin, Samsung Electronic’s President Young Sohn revealed the company had sold 1 million foldable Galaxy Fold smartphones. Estimates from October pegged sales at that time at 500,000 units.
“And I think that the point is, we’re selling [a] million of these products,” Sohn said. “There’s a million people that want to use this product at $2,000.”
Today’s conversation at Disrupt Berlin focused around growth through innovation. Sohn commented on the sales number while explaining Samsung’s process of releasing products to get feedback. He said, in part, if they kept devices like the Fold in labs, they wouldn’t get the input they needed.
And Samsung got a lot of feedback about the Galaxy Fold.
The foldable phone was first announced early this year at MWC 2019, where it was among a handful of foldable devices. It launched several months later in April, where reviewers quickly discovered multiple problems, including screens that cracked. The company soon (though perhaps not quickly enough) reworked the product, re-releasing it in late September.
The re-released Galaxy Fold was more durable, though our review unit still had screen issues.
Today at Disrupt Berlin, I asked if Samsung is comfortable selling a $2,000 device that is essentially a beta device. He said yes, and pointed to the new sales number as justification.
Previous media reports stated Samsung is ramping up plans to sell 6 million foldable devices in 2020.
