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Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 is reportedly struggling, but the Galaxy S24 series continues to sell very well

Published: Aug 29, 2024, 10:17 AM

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Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 is reportedly struggling, but the Galaxy S24 series continues to sell very well

If you're struggling to understand why Samsung is looking to release yet another foldable device this fall, prolific social media leaker Ice Universe (aka @UniverseIce) has something that might explain the existence (and imminence) of the oft-rumored Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition.

Of course, the world's top smartphone vendor may simply be aiming to diversify its foldable portfolio with a new state-of-the-art option designed specifically with demanding Asian audiences in mind. But if the number shared by Ice Universe on X is legit, it's hard not to see a connection between it and Samsung's sudden desire to do more in the foldable space this year.

How low is 270,000?

If we're talking hamburgers ate in a lifetime, probably not very low. But if we're talking Galaxy Z Fold 6 units sold by Samsung around the world during the handset's first two weeks of availability, that's pretty bad. Granted, this is not an official figure confirmed by the company, but something tells us Ice Universe obtained his information from a reliable source on the inside or at least a trusted analytics firm.

Interestingly, more numbers were publicized on the leaker's Weibo account, including the Z Flip 6's 420,000 unit sales during its own first 14 days on the global market. That brings Samsung's two foldable phones released (so far) this year to a grand total of 690,000 units sold worldwide, which... doesn't sound great either.

The Z Fold 6 (left) is reportedly not as popular as the Z Fold 5 (right). | Image Credit -- PhoneArena

In contrast, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 accounted for a combined 1 million pre-orders in Korea alone a little over a year ago, and while some of those pre-orders may have been canceled before the devices could ship, it's pretty clear that the Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 are proving considerably less popular than their predecessors.

For his part, Ice Universe is merely labeling the early sales of the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 as "slightly lower than those of the Z5 series", which seems like a bit of an understatement. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, mind you, actually proved less successful than the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, selling a combined 7.3 million units globally in 12 months compared to 9 million copies for the Z4 duo.

How high can the Galaxy S24 family go?

While Samsung's foldables are evidently not as popular as the company would wish, its "conventional" flagships are actually doing better than anyone may have anticipated.

With 23.4 million units in seven months, the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra are easily eclipsing the under 21 million tally of the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra in a similar timeframe last year. That's a nice and healthy progress of around 12 percent for Samsung's main high-end handset trio, and unsurprisingly, the largest improvement comes from the Ultra model.

The S24 family is a big global hit. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena

The "vanilla" S24, meanwhile, is only slightly more popular than the base S23, with the S24+ growing by a pretty large percentage but staying rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. With all of this in mind, we're now wondering if Samsung will try to accelerate the development of the Galaxy S25 family to release it a little earlier than expected and thus cover (a bit) for the failures of the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.

The S24 trio, of course, is unlikely to boost its sales numbers much after the iPhone 16 series launch in a couple of weeks. Speaking of Apple, the iPhone 15 quartet is estimated to have shipped a grand total of over 140 million copies in 10 months, exceeding its predecessor's numbers by a tiny but not insignificant 1.8 percent.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.