Well, it seems there’s one more bit of news related to Samsung’s much-maligned Galaxy Fold handset that we’re likely going to end the year on. And for many of you who’ve followed along as Samsung made its first foray into foldable smartphones, this will seem like par for the course when it comes to how Samsung has handled the … well, let’s just say the bumpy rollout of the Galaxy Fold this year.
We told you just yesterday about Samsung Electronics president Young Sohn’s assertion at a TechCrunch event that Samsung has improbably managed to sell 1 million units of the Galaxy Fold so far — a massive achievement no matter how you look at it, considering the phone’s $1,980 price tag. Not to mention the botched launch, all the early flaws and design misfires that showed up in the first units, the surprising fragility of the device, and more. Except, not so fast! Just one day later, Samsung found itself in the unfortunate position of having to walk back that declaration of 1 million Galaxy Fold sales, with a company spokesman acknowledging that figure is not accurate.
This fresh development comes via Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, citing a Samsung spokesman who admitted the Galaxy Fold actually hasn’t sold that many units yet. Not only do we still not know what the actual figure is, but it also seems via this spokesman that Sohn apparently mixed up Samsung’s sales target of 1 million by the end of 2019 with, you know, the actual sales figure. Yonhap cites analyst estimates of between 400,000 and 500,000 Galaxy Fold units sold this year as likely closer to the actual sales total.
Meanwhile — man, what a mess this year has been for Samsung’s foldable efforts, as this latest gaffe proves. About the only positive thing left to say at this point is that 2019 is, thankfully, almost over, with Samsung hoping to double down on foldables in 2020 and bring several million such handsets to market. We’ll likely get two new Samsung foldables in the new year, including one with a clamshell design, not to mention foldables from a number of Samsung competitors as well — so it will definitely be interesting to see what 2020 brings along these lines.
