Samsung Thinks The Wider Z Fold 8 Will Be a Hit
I've told you guys a couple of times that my coverage of the wider aspect ratio foldable that Samsung is set to release sometime in July has performed better than the coverage of the ZFold 8 Ultra, the device that looks more like the Galaxy ZFold 7 consistently. When I talk about the wide one, the views are just higher.
Now, of course, I think a lot of that comes down to just who my audience is. You guys watching my content tend to be tech enthusiasts, people who like to be on the bleeding edge, people who are most likely to already be bored with the traditional foldable format. And I am someone who was basically an evangelist for the original Pixel Fold form factor, the shorter, wider than it is tall inner screen. So, I've attracted people who would be intrigued with this design and with something that is newish within the foldable space. That's definitely going to skew kind of how things work. Because of that, when people have asked me if a lot of people actually want a foldable like this, it's been hard to answer. I just don't know. I know that I do and I know that a lot of you do, but that doesn't fill a representative sample size of the broader public. Today we have something interesting that might point in that general direction.
A new report from South Korean publication ET News sheds light on how many standard ZFold 8 units Samsung is planning to produce for that initial run. Even though it sounds a bit confusing, all indications, rumors, and leaks point to the wider version being the standard ZFold 8, while the device that mimics the older style will be the ZFold 8 Ultra.
According to the translated report, Samsung has aggressively increased its initial shipment plans for the wide-fold standard ZFold 8 ahead of its July release. Samsung initially set the production target at about 1 million units per year, but they have already boosted that number by about 200,000 to 300,000 units just for the first 3 months. They expect to make a similar number of these wide devices as the Ultra models, and surprisingly, they are tracking to produce more of these than the Z Flip 8. Considering that the ZFold 7 reportedly sold around 6 million units total up to this point, aiming to close to double up on book style foldables year-over-year is an incredibly aggressive move.
This raises the all-important question: Why does Samsung think they can sell this many book style foldables at the same time without one device canceling out the other?
Clearly, they believe the wide variant will add sales rather than stealing them from the Ultra by targeting completely different customers. The wide variant is targeting someone who cares more about multimedia input and one-handed use, whereas the Ultra version remains a productivity device with a bigger battery, a better camera setup, and a square inner screen that is better for split screening.
While the base model should come in at a lower price compared to $1999 for the Ultra, a lower price alone doesn't grow the market. The biggest reason Samsung is so bullish on this device actually has everything to do with Apple.
Apple is releasing their own foldable, and the design is remarkably similar to what Samsung is about to release as the base model ZFold 8. Samsung is trying not to completely seed that territory to Apple. Apple is incredibly influential, and when they enter a market, the majority of the industry follows suit. Samsung might be banking on the idea that when Android users see the iPhone fold, they will suddenly see foldables as legitimate. When they look for a device with that exact same style, Samsung will have an identical option ready for them.
