What you need to know
- Samsung has reportedly clamped down on South Korean carriers' requests to lower the Fold's pricing.
- The suggested drop in price was in anticipation of the Galaxy Z Flip's impending launch.
- Samsung, however, felt a price drop would send the wrong message about the Galaxy Fold's premium credentials.
If you think the $2,000 asking price for Samsung's first foldable phone was too much, Samsung most vehemently disagrees with you. Not only has the company maintained the phone's pricing at the same level since launch, but it may also not approve a drop in price even after the Galaxy Z Flip officially launches next week.
A report from South Korean publication JoongAng News suggests carriers in the company had proposed, to Samsung, a drop in pricing for the Galaxy Fold from 2,398,000 Korean won ($2,025) to 1,998,700 won ($1,688).
The carriers' reasoning behind the proposed price drop was the impending launch of the Galaxy Z Flip on February 11, which is widely expected to cost somewhere around one to one and a half million won. And even though the Z Flip, widely seen as the successor to the Fold, will undercut its predecessor at launch, Samsung has vetoed the carriers' suggested price drop.
According to JoongAng News, the company is concerned about how the price cut would reflect on the Fold's flagship credentials. So, for now, the negotiations between the two parties have stalled.
It's unclear if Samsung will hold that position even after the Galaxy Z Flip has launched. It's also worth pointing out that the Korean giant does not view the Z Flip as a 'true' successor to the Fold internally, with new reports suggesting that a Galaxy Fold 2 will be launched later in 2020.
Thus, Samsung may position the Fold series, with its eye-watering prices, as the ultra-premium foldable in its lineup, with the Galaxy Z Flip being its more affordable sibling meant for the masses.
