FOREWORD
Samsung’s flip phones are suffering from their own success Pre-orders for the Samsung Z Flip 3 blew away even the company’s most ambitious estimates. Now, thanks to massive enthusiasm for a more affordable folding smartphone and the ongoing global chip shortage, the South Korean tech giant is struggling to meet demand. Samsung has kind of gone and shot itself in the foot. The latest generation of folding phones from South Korea’s biggest tech brand - the Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 - managed to rack up pre-launch sales of just over a million units. While that fact should be a cause for celebration at Samsung, executives at the company are reportedly worried that it won’t be able to meet such strong demand. Chips are in such short supply, not to mention so expensive, that simply over-manufacturing devices isn’t an effective solution. You have to guess it right. And Samsung, bless them, went and guessed wrong. It’s somewhat understandable that this happened, however. Pre launch sales figures for the Galaxy Z Flip 2 and Galaxy Z Fold 2 released last year barely topped 80,000 units, and orders for the Samsung Galaxy S21 released earlier in 2021 topped out at just 300,000. The Galaxy Z Flip (the cheaper of Samsung’s two foldables, with a price tag of just under $1,000) racked up 700,000 pre-orders by itself. The age of the (somewhat) affordable folding phone is here. It might have been a little more auspicious if everyone who bought one didn’t have to wait a full month for it to arrive. MOBILE MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY
HARRY MENEAR h.menear@bizclikmedia.com
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