Samsung has just announced its new foldable devices yesterday, during its Unpacked event. And as you’d expect from the still relatively new form factor, their prices do not exactly scream “mainstream”. But it looks like the South Korean tech giant may be looking to make more affordable foldable options in addition to the existing premium range.
Bloomberg reports that Samsung “is in talks with with supply partners to drive down the cost of manufacturing foldables without compromising key specs”. One of the reasons listed in the report as to the company’s motivations is “to hasten adoption of the novel form factor”.
Even among the two foldable lines the tech giant offers, the new Samsung Galaxy Flip5 has a starting price of RM4,499, which is about the ballpark of what other flagship devices are asking for, minus a few exceptions. Which is fair because, form factor aside, it does come with the kind of internals that you’d expect from flagship-class devices. For the company to drive costs down, compromising on key specs seems inevitable.
The report also notes that pushing down the price range of foldable devices will allow Samsung to have foldables that can “more directly challenge Apple’s mainstream iPhone range”. Which sounds like an odd thing to strive for specifically, since the Galaxy S series is already doing that. Not that their prices are all that different to begin with. For context, the iPhone 14 family had prices that start from RM4199 when they were initially avaialble. The Samsung Galaxy S23 line also had the same starting price, launch promos notwithstanding.
(Source: Bloomberg)
