At the Samsung Electronics Show earlier this month, the company unveiled its new, cheaper foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Apart from some improvements in durability and a thinner body, this could make it one of the best folding machines you can buy, much like its predecessors, and still as expensive as the flagship iPhone 13 or Galaxy S22. For some reason, Samsung isn’t cutting prices, which means we won’t have a more affordable clam-shell foldable phone this year-and probably won’t for a while.
Jene Park, a senior Research analyst at Counterpoint Research, said prices for foldable phones remain high because their hinges and folding displays make them more complex to produce than typical flat-shell smartphones. The result of not cutting prices is still some sort of discount, as inflation raises the cost of producing all the equipment. “This price freeze is Samsung’s effort to lower prices,” Park said.
While the $1,800 z Fold 4 is intentionally expensive to maintain exclusivity, the Z Flip 4 is a more affordable entry-level product for foldable devices and is more popular with consumers. Samsung points out that its Z Flip line accounts for seven out of every 10 folding machines it sells. At Unpacked, Samsung CEO t. M. Roh says he wants to see folding devices become more mainstream, and it’s clear that the Z Flip device will be an entry point for curious consumers to see if they’re ready to buy a folding product.
However, it is difficult to market the clamshell folding machine to consumers. Folding them down to the size of a cosmetic case is appealing, but they cost as much as a flagship phone, have a more limited camera and no extra display space, unlike book-style folding machines. If folding phones are cheap enough to compete with the $600 mid-range phones people buy when they can’t afford a flagship device, more consumers might try them.
The price of foldable phones is unlikely to fall until component prices fall, and that will not happen until they are mass produced. More consumers are buying foldable devices. Counterpoint’s Park estimates that 16M units will be shipped in 2022, up from 9m last year. But even if this figure exceeds expectations, the supply chain of collapsible components and monitors may not be able to meet this demand. That’s part of the reason Apple isn’t rushing to roll out its own foldable screen, said Bob o’Donnell, an analyst at Technalysis Research.
“[ foldable ] screens are hard to mass produce, and if apple is going to make one, somebody has to make, you know, 100 million of them. They’re not ready for that,” o’Donnell said.
There are some promising signs that the industry is working on cheaper clam-shell foldable phones since the $1,450 Motorola Razr debuted in 2019, the phone has become more affordable. Last September, Tcl was even reluctant to launch a foldable phone for its nearly completed Chicago project because it could not bring the price down to about $700. At the time, Tcl said it would wait 12 to 18 months before attempting to launch its first foldable phone, which would be a modified product-and potentially a more affordable one.
Not many handset makers are still in the fold-out race, but if anyone is leading the way, it’s Samsung, which is now in its fourth generation. Park of Counterpoint says Samsung is likely to be the first company to offer a $600 foldable phone, especially since the company has announced plans to offer a foldable phone in its mid-range a range. He speculated it could be launched as early as the 2024.
“Given that the A-series will top out at around $600, it is expected to be the cheapest foldable product ever,” Park said.
