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Samsung is the king of the foldable market right now because it was one of the first companies to launch phones that fold. Another reason for that dominance is the absence of real competitors. Several Chinese foldable handsets could compete against the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4, but they’re unavailable internationally. The main reason Samsung can brag about being the market leader in this segment is the absence of a foldable iPhone.
A few weeks ago, Samsung launched a new ad campaign to mock Apple for not having a foldable iPhone. After all these years, Samsung has not given up on making fun of the iPhone. That’s even though Apple sells millions of expensive iPhones every year, a feat Samsung can’t match with its foldable and non-foldable Galaxy flagships.
The new Samsung ad is part of the On the Fence campaign that Samsung started in early November. Like the previous spot, we have the same iPhone user, sitting on the fence between Apple and Samsung, unsure of what to do next.
The man starts a conversation with a woman who tells him she used to be him. “Sitting on the fence between Apple and Samsung.” The man is interested in a Samsung device but worries about what his friends will think if he gets it. But the woman explains that everyone around him will be jealous.
“When you pull out your new Galaxy Z Flip 4, people are going to lose it,” she says. “They’ll never leave you alone.”
The idea here is clear, Samsung has a type of handset that Apple doesn’t make. There’s no foldable iPhone to compete against the Galaxy Z Flip 4. But it’s not like people are hurrying to buy foldable Galaxy phones.
The Flip 4 is reasonably priced, matching the cost of traditional flagship phones. Yet it can’t match the popularity of non-foldable iPhones, like the iPhone 14 Pro models.
That must hurt Samsung terribly in real life. In the ad, however, Samsung wins the customer over. He’s no longer on the fence, jumping over to Samsung to embrace the foldable handset. As soon as he does, iPhone users from the other side start pestering him with questions.
There’s no telling when Apple will make a foldable iPhone if it’s even considering it. Instead, the company might launch foldable tablets or MacBooks before a foldable iPhone. As for Samsung, the lack of real competition is hurting its foldables rather than helping it gain more customers.
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Rumors about Apple launching a foldable device aren’t new. This time, Samsung is preparing for the Cupertino company to join a market that the South Korean firm currently has the lead. While everyone expects a foldable iPhone, Samsung doesn’t think this will be the first Apple device to bend.
According to a report by The Elec, Samsung thinks the foldable market will grow 80% by 2025, and one of the reasons will be Apple joining the competition in 2024. Samsung’s mobile business, Mobile Experience, said that the Cupertino company would enter the foldable market, not with smartphones, but with notebooks and tablets first.
Samsung Galaxy Fold 4 next to Galaxy Flip 4. Image source: Samsung Last month, CCS Insight published its annual prediction report and said Apple would likely launch a foldable iPad in 2024.
One of the reasons why Apple won’t likely launch a foldable iPhone at first is not to cannibalize the existing iPhones as, according to the analyst, the foldable option would have to be “incredibly expensive.”
Early this year, display analyst Ross Young said Apple was mulling a 20-inch foldable MacBook display, which could also be an iPad. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman also corroborated Apple entering this new market.
Both analysts Ming-Chi Kuo and Ross Young expect a foldable iPhone to be introduced in 2025 at the earliest. In a couple of years from now, a foldable iPad/MacBook makes more sense.
BGR will keep reporting on Apple’s new market approaches as the company is rumored to announce soon a Mixed Reality headset, an Augmented Reality headset, and a car in this decade.
More Apple coverage: What’s really causing the M2 MacBook Pro launch delay?
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Samsung is a couple of weeks away from returning to the Unpacked stage. This time, it’ll unveil new foldable devices and wearable gadgets. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 will be the main stars of the event, although Samsung fans also expect the Watch 5 and brand new Galaxy Buds, come August 10th. Almost everything has leaked about the new foldable phones in the past few weeks. The only thing missing was the price for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4, but there’s a rumor about that.
The European pricing structure for the Flip 4 has leaked, indicating that Samsung might not plan any significant price changes for the more affordable foldable handset. The Flip 4 should cost just as much as its predecessor in the region, so we’d expect Samsung to keep the Fold 4 price in place as well.
Smartphone price hikes shouldn’t be a surprise
Flagship smartphone vendors routinely keep last year’s pricing structure in place, but 2022 isn’t a regular year, and foldable phones aren’t regular flagships. The massive inflation following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine has forced suppliers to increase prices. In turn, smartphone makers might pass those costs to the consumer.
That’s not great news for Samsung foldable devices, which continue to be more expensive than traditional flagships. Samsung has lowered the prices since the first Fold and Flip models. And the company throws plenty of promos at consumers in a bid to reduce the entry cost. But Samsung phones are more expensive than their counterparts from China. Luckily for Samsung, those rival devices aren’t widely available.
Considering all these conditions, it’s clear that Samsung can’t offer massive price discounts for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 this year. At best, Samsung can keep prices in place for one more year. That’s what the new leak suggests.
Galaxy Z Flip 4 leaked press render. Image source: MySmartPrice Galaxy Z Flip 4 price in Europe
As always, with European Union prices for goods, we’ll remind you that the prices below factor in tax. That’s how it works. Therefore, converting the prices in dollars will not get you the full picture. On the other hand, since the dollar and the euro reached parity, converting the prices below is very simple.
That said, a new report provides the purported prices for the Galaxy Z Flip 4 variants. Here’s what buyers in the EU might expect:
128GB Galaxy Z Flip 4: $1,080 256GB Galaxy Z Flip 4: $1,160 512GB Galaxy Z Flip 4: $1,280 Whatever the final price for the Flip 4, the entire EU region will offer a similar pricing structure, with small variations. Italian blog Tutto Android speculates that the 128GB model might cost $1,099 in Italy. That price point is in line with the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s cost last year.
Galaxy Z Fold 4 press image leak. Image source: 91mobiles/Evan Blass How to reduce the cost of foldable phones.
If the Flip 4 price quotes are accurate, we’d expect Samsung to keep the Flip 3 prices in various markets. The new affordable foldable might start at $999 in the US before all the deals.
Similarly, Fold 4 might keep the Fold 3 starting price in place. That’s $1,799 before deals and promos. But you might get just 128GB of storage instead of 256GB like last year.
The good news is that Samsung will have plenty of preorder deals for fans. You can start saving right away by registering your interest to preorder. You score at least $100 in savings for either the Fold 4 or Flip 4. And savings go up to $200 if you also register to preorder the new Samsung wearables.
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