Samsung’s shipment rate for its latest foldable phones Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 were 10% higher than their predecessors, TheElec has learned.
As of mid-September, the tech giant had over 8 weeks of inventory left for the two models, which means they are selling steadily.
Samsung orders parts for its smartphones on a 2-week basis, which means it could order more parts if shipment and demand continue to be at the current high rate.
Galaxy Z Flip 5 was taking up 65% of the total sales of the series.
However, this week, South Korea’s Thanksgiving Holiday starts, and Samsung has not put in additional orders beforehand.
Its suppliers usually suspend production during the holidays so if projected demand was high Samsung would have ordered more at the current time.
This indicates that while sales of Fold 5 and Flip 5 are slightly higher than their predecessors, the total shipment may be similar or only slightly higher than last year.
The tech giant initially aimed to produce a combined 13 million units of the series but this has dropped as the economic downturn globally is harsher than anticipated.
All in all, Samsung could be looking at a combined shipment of 10 million units __ with 7 million units coming from Fold 5 and Flip 4 and 3 million units coming from legacy models.
Last year, the South Korean company shipped around late-9 million units of foldable phones.
Meanwhile, Samsung is expected to start producing parts for the Galaxy S24 series and it will likely launch a month earlier than the Galaxy S23 series.
This is to counter Apple’s launch of the iPhone 15 series, which is expected to perform solidly.
