Samsung has begun production of key components it will use on its upcoming foldable phones, TheElec has learned.
The company has placed orders enough to manufacture a total of mid- to late-10 million units for Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4, sources said.
The assembly of the complete production will begin in early July, they added.
The order amount shows that Samsung will be near doubling the number of units it manufactures for its new foldable phones compared to last year.
The company made around 7 million units in total for the Galaxy Z 3 series last year.
This time around, Galaxy Z Flip 4 will account for 70% of the units produced while Galaxy Z Fold 4 will account for 30%.
However, Samsung could decide to manufacture more or fewer units depending on market conditions.
Samsung Display is also expected to complete the expansion of its facilities for the foldable panel modules within the second quarter of this year.
It is currently increasing the number of module production lines in Vietnam from the previous seven to ten.
Once the expansion is complete, Samsung Display can manufacture up to 2 million units of foldable display panels per month, up from the previous 1.5 million units.
Once the new lines start operation, the display panel maker will have the capacity to manufacture a million units each for the panels that are headed for Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4.
Samsung is currently keeping profitability for the Z series lower than its other flagship series S.
According to Mizuho Securities, Samsung’s profitability from each of its smartphone series are thought to be: 19% for the S series, 15% for the Z series and 5% for the A series.
