Samsung may stop selling its most ambitious phone just months after launch even though buyers want it badly

It was a killer product but was never designed for the mass market.

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A man holding the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold and showing it from the side.
Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold. | Image by Samsung
Just before last year's Christmas and New Year holidays, Samsung released the Galaxy Z TriFold in South Korea. The device was then launched in a handful of other countries, including the United States, at the start of this year. Technically, it's only been a few months since Samsung's first trifolding smartphone hit the market. Still, the South Korean giant has reportedly decided it's time to stop sales of this device.

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No, it's not because of the low demand


In 2024, Huawei released the Mate XT, the world's first trifolding smartphone. Almost a year later, Samsung launched its own trifold device, the Galaxy Z TriFold. However, unlike the brand's other phones, the Galaxy Z TriFold launched only in select countries, including South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, the UAE, and the United States.

The device was also only available in limited quantities. A report published in December claimed that only 3,000 to 4,000 units of the device were available in South Korea at that time. Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 units were available for global shipments. These numbers look like peanuts if you compare them to the more than 1 million units of pre-orders that the tech giant received for just the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7.

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Now, a new report claims that Samsung will no longer sell the Galaxy Z TriFold in South Korea from March 17. It's not as if there wasn't demand for this product. Reports indicate that it sells out within minutes of becoming available on the Samsung website. You can imagine the crazy demand for this phone from the fact that interested buyers were purchasing it from used-product websites by paying almost three times its actual price.

If demand has never been the issue, why has Samsung decided to stop selling it? There are basically two reasons behind this. An industry insider reportedly stated that this product wasn't designed to generate revenue. Instead, it was made to "showcase technological prowess."

The second reason is the high production cost of the TriFold. Due to the increased prices of key components like DRAM, chipsets, and NAND flash, Samsung would not make any significant profit on this phone, even if it continues to sell.

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It could become unavailable in other countries too



It isn't that Samsung is wrapping up only the domestic sale of the TriFold. The report mentions that sales in other countries, including the United States, could also wind down in the coming weeks. Sales will reportedly cease in those markets once current inventory runs out.

On one hand, Samsung is putting the brakes on the trifold; on the other, it is soon going to release three new foldables: the Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and an entirely new wide foldable. As of now, there is no leak or tip about the TriFold 2, but considering its popularity and buyers demand, it wouldn't be a surprise if we actually see it hitting the markets sometime in the near future.
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