At the Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday, Samsung launched the company’s latest lineup of foldable smartphones, which has two devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6. At the event, the President of Samsung Electronics, Roh Tae-Moon, was asked about how many units of the two smartphones the company is expecting to sell.

Answering that question, he said, “It is difficult to estimate the exact sales figure.” However, Roh further added, “We aim to sell 10 percent more of new products compared with the previous model released last year.” That doesn’t sound like a very ambitious number and there’s a reason why the company is not quoting a very high bump in the sales figure.

Samsung is losing its share in the global foldable smartphone market

According to a report from Counterpoint Research that came out in May this year, the global foldable smartphone market grew by 49% from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024. However, during the same period, Samsung’s share in it fell from 58% to 23%. Whereas, the shares of Huawei, Honor, and Motorola rose from 14%, 3%, and 1% to 35%, 12%, and 11% respectively.

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So, even though the demand for foldable smartphones is increasing, Samsung is losing its share in the market due to the rise of new products. That trend could continue for quite some time, and that’s probably why Samsung isn’t expecting the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6 to sell much higher compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 or the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

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In fact, Samsung isn’t worried about other brands eating up the sales of the Galaxy Z Fold devices with Roh saying “As the market expands and competition intensifies, it is positive for consumers as they benefit from a more competitive market.” We could get some numbers on the sales of these devices by the end of this year which should give us a clearer picture.