Samsung Foldable Sales Rise 30% Ahead Of Apple’s Expected iPhone Shift

Samsung's latest foldable phones are gaining sales momentum just as Apple prepares to enter the category, with the newest Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 lineup up 30% by volume from a year earlier, Fortune reported.

The early data covers only the first month after Samsung's July launch, but it extends roughly 30% foldable growth from last year and comes despite higher prices tied to memory costs.

The result gives Samsung a stronger market story before Apple attempts one of the largest changes to the iPhone's form factor since the product created the modern smartphone market nearly two decades ago.

The competitive opening is still narrow.

Counterpoint Research put foldables at less than 2% of global smartphone unit sales last year, leaving the segment premium, visible and far from mass adoption.

Samsung's entry models start at $1,200, its high-end foldable costs $2,100, and Apple's expected foldable iPhone is also expected to cost at least $2,100.

Within that small category, Samsung enters the Apple cycle with scale and scars.

The company launched the Galaxy Fold in 2019 and spent the following years working through hinge and display problems that defined early reviews.

Its newer generation has drawn praise for build quality, durability and a crease that reviewers describe as barely noticeable.

That experience now sits beside a clearer customer split.

Dave Das, executive vice president for Samsung Electronics America's mobile experience business, told Fortune that foldables are attracting new fold-curious buyers and prompting existing users to upgrade more often.

New Samsung customers who previously owned a rival smartphone are 25% higher for foldables than for traditional bar-type phones, a pattern the company reads as evidence that some iPhone owners are switching operating systems to get the form factor.

The devices also give Samsung more visible annual change than a conventional handset.

A foldable opens like a book to reveal a larger internal display while keeping a smaller external screen for quick access.

That physical difference lets the company sell thinner, lighter models as a visible upgrade rather than asking buyers to notice incremental changes inside a familiar slab.

The July lineup sharpened that segmentation.

A new passport-style Galaxy Z Fold 8 accounts for 40% of foldable sales after about one month on sale, while the high-end Z Fold 8 Ultra makes up another 40%.

The $1,200 Z Flip 8, a clamshell model aimed more at photo and video capture, represents the remaining 20%.

Product positioning follows those shares.

The Ultra model is drawing productivity buyers, the passport-style Fold 8 is gaining traction with people using the device for video and other content consumption, and the Flip 8 remains Samsung's capture-focused option.

Apple's forthcoming foldable, sometimes described as an iPhone Ultra, is expected to compete most directly with the passport-style design.

The larger smartphone balance has not shifted yet.

Traditional Galaxy S26-style bar phones still make up most Samsung smartphone sales, but foldables are growing at a much faster rate and have become mainstream enough inside Samsung's business to matter strategically.

Counterpoint ranked Samsung as the top foldable seller in 2025 with 40% global share, ahead of Huawei at 30%.

Apple's incentive is straightforward: the iPhone still generates roughly half of its revenue, and upgrades remain central to that business.

Recent iPhone sales rose 21% in the most recent quarter, but the product line has also seen slowdowns and some declining quarters in recent years.

A foldable model would give Apple a premium upgrade path at a time when standard phones offer fewer obvious design changes.

The question is whether Apple's later start lets it skip the technical learning curve Samsung endured or forces it through the same durability and design trade-offs.

Samsung is betting that seven years in the category will matter when shoppers weigh rival foldables side by side.

Das argued that shoppers will notice advantages built from Samsung's "years of experience and IP."