The rumored Galaxy Note 20 FE could be the last member of the Note family as the series has apparently been discontinued. The range has seemingly been replaced by the Galaxy Z Fold line, which sounds like an overly optimistic move, given that foldable sales volume is nowhere near Note series numbers. A new report from South Korean outlet Bloter explains how Samsung plans to take care of this problem.
The chaebol recently announced financial results for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2020 and per the report, the Mobile Communications Business witnessed a Quarter on Quarter decline in profit due to lower sales and higher market expenditure. This year, the company is pinning its hopes on the Galaxy S21, foldables, and mass-market 5G smartphones.
We will expand the foldable ecosystem through collaboration with our partners, and continue to expand product maturity and consumer experience.
The tech colossus has a ‘two-track foldable’ strategy, which is unsurprisingly based on the Galaxy Z Fold and Flip. The Z Fold is being touted as an entertainment and productivity-oriented device and for the Flip, the target market is millennials, particularly female consumers who want a competitively priced, stylish smartphone. Interestingly, the OG Galaxy Z Flip was twice as popular among males as females at launch.
This year’s Galaxy Z Fold 2 also seems to be doing well despite its high price and its successor is also expected to support the S Pen. Per Bloter, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be unveiled in May this year. It remains to be seen if it will have a new AMD-based SoC under the hood.
In short, foldable phones appear to be taking off and Samsung is eager to increase their popularity to maintain its dominance in the nascent market that could soon become crowded. Counterpoint Research estimates total foldable shipments to increase nearly eight-fold from 700,000 units in 2020 to 5.5 million units this year.
Additionally, Samsung also seems to be working on rollable and slidable phones.
It is difficult to reveal the mid-to-long-term roadmap, but we are reviewing various form factors and plan to introduce them to the market once quality is sufficiently secured”. – Seong Gu Kim, Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
