Galaxy Z TriFold Might Already be Done

A fresh report from the Korean news outlet Donga suggests that Samsung is winding down sales for the Galaxy Z TriFold in South Korea, potentially as soon as tomorrow, March 17, 2026. While the company has not made an official announcement, industry sources indicate that this will be the final day of sales in its home market, coming just three months after the device first hit the scene in December. The move apparently stems from a sharp spike in the cost of core components like DRAM and NAND flash memory, which has squeezed the margins on this $2,700 flagship to the point where it is no longer profitable to keep producing.

We had already seen signs of this back in December when a report from The Bell highlighted that the profit margin on this phone was already incredibly thin from day one. They mentioned that Samsung had originally planned for a much higher price point but squeezed it down to about 3.59 million won, which is roughly $2,700, just to make it a viable product. At that point, they were already flirting with selling the device at a loss or with margins so low they could be ignored. This was before the recent memory price hikes made things even worse.

This report aligns perfectly with what we discussed recently regarding the Galaxy Z TriFold 2 being on pause. We already knew from Samsung's own leadership that a sequel was far from a sure thing, with the company admitting that the technical hurdles, weight and price of a dual hinge design were significant barriers. If these industry reports are accurate, it looks like Samsung is pivoting away from this experimental form factor even faster than anticipated to double down on perfecting its core book style foldables as the threat of Apple’s first release looms large.

It is worth considering why Samsung even brought the TriFold to market if the plan was to pull it so quickly. The reality is that this was likely never meant to be a high volume product, it was a flagship showcase designed to prove they could master a complex, dual hinge design before their biggest competitors. By shipping a small number of units, roughly 3,000 in Korea, they got their bragging rights without the risk of a massive, failed product launch. Now that they have made their point, they seem ready to move on.

It is a bit of a bummer for those of us who love seeing weird new hardware, but from a business perspective, it is hard to argue with focusing on the devices they can sell for a profit rather than losing money on an extremely niche device.