The South Korean company has made it clear that foldables will be the future of phones and has a lead with the competition.
The fourth generation of foldable phones was unveiled bySamsung earlier this month. Nick Sutrich writes that the flip 4 is shiny and beautiful, while the fold 4 is for the power user and ultimate productivity.
Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for the worldwide device tracker, says that part of the reason that the Flip 4 is being pushed more is that it offers a regular smartphone experience.
During the Unpacked event, the company spent a lot of money and time to show off the fourth iteration of its flip phone. The stars of "Emily in Paris" were invited to speak about the phones at the event.
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...
The appeal of the flip is that it offers a smaller footprint as opposed to the fold which focuses on productivity.
The focus on pushing Flip sales could be due to the fact that the phone is cheaper than the Fold 4.
The Fold 4 retails for $1,799 without subsidies and carrier deals in North America.
Anshel Sag is a senior analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.
Consumers tend to be more interested in Flip devices in terms of price and features. Sag thinks that folding is more about productivity than flipping is.
Most of the carrier deals on the flip are free with new contract agreements, which means that it's within the carrier's desired price range.
In the first half of the 21st century, the majority of foldable sales were Flip phones. The company looks to target wider audiences with its foldable devices.
foldable items will take up more than 50% of the total premium smartphones shipped by the company by the year 2025. The new standard of phones will be foldables.
The foldables are poised to be the next big thing for the company. It is possible that foldables will grab a larger share of premium sales in the future.
The majority of foldable sales are accounted for by the Flip.
He says that the company should continue to improve on the Fold since that will help move users up the stack in terms of pricing.
He believes that improving on the Fold is important, but he doesn't think that the phone should be reduced in price just to reduce the price of the Fold.
It wouldn't be a good move for the company as they risk cheapening the image of the device. It is in the best interest of the company to scale up and help lower costs in order to reach a more acceptable price point.
Adding more foldables would appeal to different consumer budgets.
Sag says that it might be wise for SAMSUNG to continue with its current strategy of pinning the fold to power users who prefer productivity and the flip to the enthusiast user.
There is a clear and wide gap between what the flip and fold are offering. Sag thinks there is room for a larger Flip device or a smaller Fold device that will fill the $800 gap between the entry level Flip and Fold.
It wouldn’t be a good move for Samsung, as they risk cheapening the image of such a cutting-edge device.
He says that the company's lead in foldables will be challenged fairly soon and thatSamsung needs to keep the pedal down on foldable innovation in ways that make their solutions the clear winner over otherAndroid foldables.
Neil Shah is a vice president at Counterpoint Research.
He says that it is on its fourth generation of foldables engineering experience curve and that it is widening a significant lead with competition.
Shah says that a cheaper and smaller foldable would be a good idea.
There is a big gap between the current Flip and Fold, and a cheaper and smaller version of theGalaxy Fold would be very appealing. He says that there is always a challenge from software, and that the OEMs will try to minimize and fragment the foldables form factor until the developers catch up.
The Note series was for serious business customers, and the S series was for the enthusiast market, so it's possible that the same approach is being taken with the Note series.
Sag said that he couldn't blame SAMSUNG for addressing the marketing in this manner.
He thinks the missing piece for the Fold is an integrated S-Pen.
Ubrani thinks that SAMSUNG is doing the same thing.
They seem to be leaning more towards that. The first Fold was not as productive as it could have been. The Note used to be a more productivity oriented device before it became a mass market device.
We might see a natural evolution of the Fold for it to become more popular than it is now.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
