Samsung is gearing up the hype machine for the release of its next foldables once again, and ahead of the next Unpacked event on August 10th, mobile president TM Roh has published another blog post making the case that the time for foldables is now — and that more people are picking up foldable phones.
“Three years ago, Galaxy foldables could be summed up in a single word: radical,” Roh wrote. “Very quickly, however, it became clear that this groundbreaking, flexible design fit perfectly into modern lifestyles. As a result, what was once a novelty three years ago is now the preferred choice for millions.”
In the post, Roh says that the industry shipped almost 10 million foldable smartphones worldwide in 2021, a figure that was up 300 percent from 2020.
Samsung could be overstating the market a little bit — Ross Young, CEO of DSCC and a widely-cited display tech analyst, shared data with The Verge that says there were 7.9 million foldables shipped, while IDC says there were 7.1 million foldables shipped. Whatever the number is, it would represent just a fraction of the smartphone market; according to IDC, Samsung alone shipped 272 million smartphones just in 2021.
