Nearly two decades after Apple created the modern smartphone market, the iPhone is about to undergo its biggest transformation ever. It’s going foldable.
If Apple executives feel any trepidation about altering the iPhone’s time-tested design, they may find reassurance from their top competitor: Samsung. The Korean electronics company has been selling foldable smartphones for seven years, with the latest Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 family of devices, which launched in July.
Sales of Samsung’s new foldables are up 30% by volume year over year, the company tells Fortune exclusively. That’s only one month’s worth of data, but it comes on the back of roughly 30% growth in foldables last year, and despite the new models’ higher prices because of memory costs. “The response to foldables has been tremendous,” says Samsung senior executive Dave Das in an interview with Fortune.
According to Das, executive vice president, mobile experience business at Samsung Electronics America, foldable phones have a consumer appeal that’s driving sales among new, fold-curious users and causing existing foldable converts to upgrade more frequently. The demand and market dynamics are reminiscent of the early days of smartphones, when each year’s new slate of models generated a wave of buzz—and upgrades.
