Samsung to launch slimmer foldable phone next week

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker by shipment, is expected to launch its thinnest foldable phone next week to reinforce its footing in the global foldable smartphone market where Chinese rivals are edging their way up.

Releasing a video invitation on Thursday, Samsung said it would introduce a new product on Monday and set the market launch date on Oct. 25. While the smartphone maker did not reveal what the product will be, it gave away a hint in the video showing off a mobile device.

In the video, an envelope is slipped underneath a door, and inside, a mobile device opens up the invitation with a date.

The new product is expected to be the Galaxy Z Fold 6 SE, a special edition model of the foldable smartphone at its slimmest.

The envisioned device is predicted to be 10.6 millimeters when fully folded, and 4.9 mm when unfolded. This is 1.5 mm and 0.7 mm thinner than the original Galaxy Z Fold 6, launched in July.

The special edition model is expected to be Samsung’s most expensive handset. The 1-terabyte model of the original device was launched at a price of 2.7 million won ($1,974). The SE model is expected to be priced at around 3 million won.

Samsung’s decision to release a new variant of a smartphone series just three months after launching the original comes as a rare event, showing the company's sense of crisis at a time when Chinese rivals are aggressively carving out their share in the global market.

When Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 in July, the number of preorders in Korea came short of anticipation, standing at 910,000 units. The previous series sold 1.02 million units in preorders.

For the first time since launching the industry’s first foldable smartphone in 2019, Samsung was overtaken by Huawei in the global foldable market in the first quarter of this year. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung took 23 percent of the foldable phone market share in the January-March period, while Huawei posted 35 percent. China’s Honor, Oppo and Motorola also increased their market share, taking 12 percent, 8 percent and 11 percent shares in the quarter, respectively.

“Chinese companies are actively targeting both domestic and overseas markets, and the growth is expected to speed up,” Park Jin-suk, a senior research analyst at Counterpoint Research said. “Samsung should keep a close eye on this trend to maintain its market share.”

Chinese companies have been expanding their presence in the foldable smartphone market, putting emphasis on the thinness of the models. In July, Xiaomi released the Mix Fold 4, which is 9.45 mm thin when fully folded.

Honor also revealed the Magic V3 in September, which is 9.3 mm thin.

Huawei unveiled the world’s first double-hinged smartphone, the Mate XT, which attracted more than 6.5 million preorders.

Meanwhile, Samsung is striving to maintain its top spot in the global smartphone market. Samsung remained No. 1 in the global smartphone market in terms of shipments for the July-September period, but it was the only vendor among the five big-name smartphone makers to experience negative year-on-year growth.

According to IDC, Samsung shipped 57.8 million units to take 18.3 percent of the market share, while Apple delivered 56 million units to take 17.7 percent share in the third quarter. In the previous quarter, Samsung took 18.9 percent of the share.

On the yearly account, Samsung sold 1.7 million fewer smartphones during Q3 than in the same period last year when Apple and its Chinese rivals Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo all witnessed a sales volume increase.

Xiaomi took third place with 13.5 percent market share in the third quarter as Oppo and Vivo followed with 9.1 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively.