Samsung’s new foldable phones achieve record pre-sale numbers

A pop-up zone at SK telecom’s flagship store ‘T Factory’ in Hongdae, Seoul. [Courtesy of SK telecom]

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5, the new foldable phones that Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled last month, have recorded the largest pre-sales ever for its foldable phone sector.

According to Samsung Electronics on Tuesday, the pre-sales of the new foldable phones in South Korea, conducted from August 1-7, reached 1.02 million units. The figure not only surpasses the previous record held by the Z4 series (970,000 units) but also comes close to the sales figures of the S23 series (1.09 million units) released earlier this year. With a successful start in pre-sales, Samsung Electronics is now gearing up to achieve its sales target set by Roh Tae-moon, the company’s president and head of mobile experience (MX) division, which is 10 million units for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Breaking down the pre-sales figures by model, Samsung Electronics reported that the sales ratio between the Flip and Fold models was about 7:3. This distribution can be attributed to the Flip model’s more significant external design changes, including a substantially larger outer screen. This shift in preference towards the Flip model is seen as an explanation for the higher ratio compared to the 6:4 distribution of the Z4 series.

Notably, the Flip model received strong demand from customers in their 20s and 30s. According to SK telecom’s pre-booking results, customers in the 20-30 age group accounted for 62 percent of the total pre-reservations, with 35 percent of all reservations for the Galaxy Z Flip 5 made by female customers in this age group.

Starting from August 8, the three major Korean telcos began accepting pre-orders for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. These companies actively promoted the new Galaxy products through their online platforms and offline stores.

SK telecom utilized its meta-verse platform, ‘ifland’, for promotions and operated a pop-up zone at ‘T Factory’ in Hongdae. KT organized experiential marketing through its ‘S Zone’ experiential store, while LG Uplus held a Galaxy pop-up event at ‘Daily Teum’, the company’s integrative cultural space.