Samsung sets conservative foldable shipment target for next year

As Samsung is gearing up for the launch of its new foldable smartphones this year, it has in turn set a more conservative shipment target for its follow-ups to launch next year, TheElec has learned.

This was because of the overall dim outlook for smartphone sales going forward as well as economic undersecretaries that are expected to persist up to 2023, sources said.

Samsung is aiming to ship 10 million units of Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 next year. Z Flip 5 will account for 8 million units and the Z Fold 5 the rest, a four-to-one ratio.

The ratio is unusually tilted towards the Z Flip model as though the company had always set the goal for the cheaper, small model higher than the bigger Z Fold model, the ratio was more around seven to three.

In contrast, Samsung has set the shipment target for the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 series to 15 million units, its highest for the series so far.

Both the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (SM8550) application processor, which will be unveiled later this year and made with TSMC’s 4nm node.

The Z Fold 5 will also sport three image sensors for its rear camera, including Samsung’s own 50MP Isocell GN3 with pixel sizes of 1 micrometer. The front camera will be 12MP.

However, the camera specification of Z Flip 5 is yet to be decided.

Meanwhile, Samsung could increase its shipment goal for the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 during development if it considers market conditions more favorable.