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Samsung is gearing up to sell a surprisingly large number of Galaxy Fold units

By Yordan Ivanov

Updated: Dec 09, 2019, 2:35 AM

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Samsung Android

Samsung is gearing up to sell a surprisingly large number of Galaxy Fold units

For a few months there, things looked unexpectedly bleak for the Galaxy Fold, which is not only Samsung's first foldable smartphone but the first such device from a major brand to become commercially available. Of course, the release of this highly anticipated product was originally scheduled for April, ultimately taking place just a couple of weeks ago in a single global market.

Even after such a painfully long wait, however, as well as concerns over the company's "stabilization" and durability improvement process, it seems the excitement is still very much alive, at least in South Korea. It reportedly took mere minutes for the first pre-order batch in Samsung's homeland to be sold out, and while it's obviously tricky to ramp up the production and sales of a device like the Galaxy Fold, local media expects the second batch to be significantly larger.

One million units could be shipped worldwide in the near future

Back when Samsung publicly showcased the (disguised) design of its then-unnamed foldable handset for the first time, the company announced a fairly ambitious goal. "At least" one million units were supposed to see daylight in the early stages of this year, and although that didn't happen due to catastrophic flaws discovered on commercial-ready devices last spring, the objective stands, simply moving into a different time slot.

In other words, Samsung is tipped to release a total of "roughly" 1 million Galaxy Fold copies globally as part of a second availability wave kicking off today in its domestic market. Between 20 and 30,000 units will reportedly be reserved specifically for Korean customers, up from no more than 4,000 pre-ordered so far through local carriers and Samsung's own official stores in the region.

That may not sound like a lot of phones, especially considering the recent box-office achievement of the Galaxy Note 10 duo, but you have to keep in mind how incredibly difficult it is to manufacture a fully functional and reliable Galaxy Fold and how pricey the device is, at the rough equivalent of $2,000 in Korea. All things considered, it will actually be pretty impressive if Samsung indeed manages to sell over a million of these versatile bad boys around the world in just a matter of weeks.

What to expect in terms of US availability

Before getting too excited, potential US-based buyers of the Galaxy Fold might want to remember the world doesn't revolve around them. While there's naturally a good chance that a sizable chunk of this one million batch will reach US shores soon enough, Samsung is still eyeing a limited release in several other countries as well, including France, Germany, Singapore, the UK, and "more."

We also don't have a firm shipping date or even a pre-order start date to share with our readers stateside, although a very dependable tipster suggested circling September 27 on your calendars. With T-Mobile out of the equation, it might be a good idea to register for updates at Best Buy or on Samsung's official US website if you want to be certain of your place at the front of the line, especially after the handset vendor made the controversial decision of cancelling all existing pre-orders at the last minute.

Coated in Cosmos Black and Space Silver, the Galaxy Fold is still expected to cost close to two thousand bucks in a 4G LTE-only configuration packing a whopping 12 gigs of memory and 512 gigs of internal storage space in addition to a blazing fast Snapdragon 855 processor and 4,380mAh battery powering a 7.3-inch Infinity Flex screen with a resolution of 2152 x 1536 pixels and a 4.6-inch HD+ "cover" display.