Last year, in an aggressive push to make foldables go mainstream, Samsung offered dramatic year-on-year price cuts to its foldable Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip lines. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 dropped $200 to $1,799, while the Galaxy Z Flip 3 price cut was even more dramatic, starting at $999, down from $1,449 for the previous generation.
Mission accomplished from Samsung’s perspective: the company shifted five times as many Z Folds and 40 times more Z Flips than the previous generation. Unfortunately for consumers, it seems that means that Samsung doesn’t feel like being as generous this time around. While we’d previously heard that the next generation of foldables could get another cut, the latest retailer price leak suggests that simply isn’t the case.
GSMArena (opens in new tab) has spotted the listings from a European retailer that shows a modest price increase for the units. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 will reportedly start at €1,864 for a model with 256GB storage, which is an increase of around $65 on the equivalent model of last year’s flagship.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, meanwhile, could get a smaller increase, now starting at €1,080. That’s a rise of about $31.50.
A costly mistake or a misprice?
First of all, we should really take those figures with a pinch of salt. It’s just one retailer, and prices can vary from place to place for all kinds of reasons, including individual markup and miscommunication.
Personally, I’d be astonished if Samsung decided to increase the $999 starting price of the Z Flip 3. Adding an extra digit to the price tag is a psychological barrier I can’t see the company crossing. It would be a dumb own goal for such a tiny increase.
As for the Z Fold 4, that’s a bit more believable. Costs are rising and as this was always the flagship luxury phone, a small increase wouldn’t be too big an imposition to the kind of consumer with this much disposable income available.
Conversely, according to one rumor the Galaxy Z Fold 4 could actually a price decrease, as it’s rumored that Samsung will offer a 128GB model as the entry-level configuration.
But even if this is all wrong and the prices remain static, that’s still hard to square with Samsung’s reported sales goals for 2022.
The company is apparently expecting foldable sales of 15 million units this year — double the total foldables from all manufacturers sold in 2021 (opens in new tab) — and that’s going to be very hard to achieve without a price drop. Given the same report is predicting a sales slump for next year’s foldables, I wonder whether Samsung is willing to take that risk.
We’ll know for sure soon enough. Samsung is preparing to unveil both foldables alongside the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Buds Pro 2 at an Unpacked event on August 10. We’ll be covering the event in full, so be sure to check back in then if you’re curious as to what Samsung is bringing to the table in the second half of the year.
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