Samsung confirms Galaxy S25, suggests a cheaper foldable and XR device could be on the horizon

What you need to know

• Samsung released its quarterly earnings reports this week, and its device experience division reported $2.45 billion in profits.
• The company is projecting “limited growth” for the final quarter of 2024, and is otherwise looking ahead to 2025.
• In releases and earnings calls, Samsung teased multiple future projects, including the Galaxy S25 series, an XR device, and a cheaper folding phone.

It’s earnings week, and we’ve already learned a lot about Google and Meta from their financial results. Now, it’s Samsung’s turn, and the South Korean tech giant is spilling the beans on its future plans. Aside from telling us how it performed last quarter, it’s also providing a few semi-cryptic details about its 2025 plans.

Samsung is a very large company, and some of its greatest successes last quarter actually came from the emergence of HBM DDR5 SSDs and system-on-a-chip (SoC) sales. Narrowing things down a bit, the company’s “Device eXperience” division, which includes phones and mobile devices, recorded an operating profit of roughly $2.45 billion (3.37 trillion South Korean won). It’s projecting “limited growth” for the final quarter of 2024 but has a few ideas about what revenue drivers 2025 might hold.

Namely, Samsung’s earnings report included the first official confirmation of the Galaxy S25 series, which will launch next year.

“Based on the advancement of Galaxy AI, MX plans to promote flagship-oriented sales growth and profitability improvement such as Galaxy S25 series and foldable, while also expanding sales of ecosystem products such as Galaxy Tab, Book and Wearable,” the report stated, translated to English.

“The Galaxy S25 series, which will be released in the first half of next year, plans to lead daily innovation by increasing the experience perfection of Galaxy AI and expand sales by strengthening marketing and experience programs.”

More importantly, Samsung acknowledged its long-planned extended reality headset, which was initially slated for a 2024 release. Now, it’s looking like Samsung’s offering won’t debut until next year.

”Through the Galaxy Ring released this year, we plan to contribute to the expansion of the Samsung Health ecosystem and strengthen the connection experience between our products such as XR (eXtended Reality) devices scheduled to be released in the future,” the release explains.

Samsung continues to view foldables as a growth vector for innovation, and it may be changing its tune on whether a cheaper foldable can (or should) exist. As spotted by Jukanlosreve on X (formerly Twitter), Samsung’s comments on an earnings call seem to suggest it is warming to the idea of a budget option.

”We are considering ways to lower entry barriers so that more customers can actually experience foldable products, given the high satisfaction among existing foldable users,” the company said.

This comes less than a week after Samsung said it had “no plans” for a cheaper foldable. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this, but it’s clear that Samsung sees the Galaxy S25 series, an XR device, and foldables as three key parts of its 2025 growth strategy.