Samsung announces new Galaxy Fold release date in a few weeks
Samsung will announce in a few weeks when it will release the Galaxy Fold. The company announced this during the presentation of the quarterly figures. At least that will happen this year.
Samsung expects to ‘release foldable smartphones’ in the second half of this year, the company writes in its discussion of the quarterly figures. The new release date of the Galaxy Fold will be released in the coming weeks, according to the company. Samsung had wanted to release the Galaxy Fold last Friday in the first countries, including the US, and next Friday in European countries, including the Benelux. Due to screen defects at reviewers, Samsung felt compelled to postpone the release.
Samsung delivered 78 million smartphones last quarter, which is slightly more than in the same period last year. The profitability of the mobile division declined as the manufacturer incurred higher costs for the production of new Galaxy A phones. Samsung hints that it makes less profit because the manufacturer charges relatively low prices and has high costs for its development.
The South Korean group has changed its mobile strategy and is now putting some features on midrange models rather than on more expensive Galaxy S phones, in order to make the Galaxy A models more attractive. For example, last year Galaxy A phones were the first to get a camera with an ultra-wide angle lens, while the new Galaxy A80 has a rotatable camera. The Galaxy S10 series sells better than expected, Samsung says.
The TV division performed better last quarter due to the early release of new models. In the coming quarter, the TV branch will struggle due to the lack of a major sporting event, traditionally a motivation for some people to buy a new television.
The components business benefited from growing demand for high-capacity storage for smartphones with 128GB of storage or more. Nevertheless, things did not go well, as Samsung suffered from a lack of growth in the Chinese market. A declining demand from ‘large customers’ for flexible OLED screens also affected the company. The best-known buyer of flexible screens besides Samsung itself is Apple, which uses them for the iPhone X, XS and XS Max.