Samsung India expects 30 pc of premium segment revenue from foldable phones this year

Samsung expects foldable smartphones to contribute 30% to premium mobile revenue in India this year.

Kolkata: Actor Priyanka Sarkar during the launch of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 series smartphone, in Kolkata, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (PTI)

Korean electronics major Samsung expects foldable smartphones to account for 30 per cent of premium mobile revenue in India this year, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

Samsung India, Mobile Business, Senior Vice President Raju Pullan said that the new foldable devices, Galaxy Fold 5 and Galaxy Flip 5, have recorded pre-booking worth ₹1,500 crore which is 1.5 times compared to pre-booking registered for previous generation foldable smartphones.

"India has rolled out the red carpet for Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5. Over 150,000 consumers have pre-booked Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5. We expect foldable smartphones to contribute over 30 per cent to our premium segment business this year, indicating growing importance of the foldable category in India," Pullan said.

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He said that customers of other brands are also opting for Flip5.

"Large number of consumers with less than 35 years of age are adopting Flip because of its design while consumers in the age group of 25-40 years have opted for Fold 5. We are seeing a huge fan base of foldable devices building up in India," Pullan said.

The company had opened pre-booking of Galaxy Fold 5 and Flip 5 from July 27 and closed on August 17 in India.

"Samsung has seen strong demand for Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 from tier 1 and 2 cities, witnessing 1.4 times growth versus last year. Interestingly, demand in tier 3 and 4 towns has also grown at the same pace, indicating that foldables are becoming mainstream in India," Pullan said.

Counterpoint Research projects that global foldable smartphone shipments are projected to reach 101.5 million in 2027 from 78.6 million in 2026 and the segment will be dominated by Samsung and Apple. The firm anticipates Apple's foldable iPhone to debut in 2025.

The Galaxy Fold 5 is priced between ₹1.54 lakh and ₹1.85 lakh apiece depending on the internal storage capacity which ranges from 256 GB to 1 TB. Samsung Galaxy Flip 5 will be available in the price range of ₹99,999 and ₹1,09,999 apiece.

"We continue to see strong growth in metros and top cities but with Fold 5 and Flip 5 we are seeing far more number of consumers in tier 3-4 cities who are adapting these new foldable devices. In cities like Wapi, we are growing 1.5 times, in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam it is around 2.8 times. The 24-month EMI option that we have given for the first time has brought in affordability. This is helping us drive our growth," Pullan said.

He said that a higher number of consumers have opted for 512 GB internal storage variant of Fold5 and both models of Flip 5 with 256 GB and 512 GB are at almost equal footing.

"We are seeing people upgrading from Fold 4 to Fold 5 because the device is lighter and our partnership with Qualcomm for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor which is attracting a lot of gaming enthusiasts," Pullan said.

According to market research and analysis firm Techarc estimates, foldable (including flip) smartphones will contribute over 1.8 per cent of the total smartphone revenues for 2023.

The estimate implies over 6.35 lakh foldable smartphones will be sold in India during the year which will be less than 0.5 per cent of the total sales by volume estimated for the period.