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Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold, the first commercial smartphone that folds into three parts, officially concludes its market journey in South Korea. According to the Korean service donga.com, sales will be halted on 17 March – just three months after its December launch. Although each batch of the device sold out within minutes, the manufacturer has decided to terminate the project in its home market, which casts new light on the profitability of such complicated designs.
Showcase of technology instead of mass production
From the very beginning, the Galaxy Z Trifold was not regarded as a product for the mass market. Samsung designed it as a "flagship showcase of capabilities", meant to demonstrate the company's superiority over others in the foldable display segment. When folded, the device has the size of a standard smartphone (6.5 inches), but when fully opened, it offers a workspace with a diagonal of 10 inches. According to information coming from Korea, this model was sold in very small quantities – one-off batches on the manufacturer's website included about 3000 units. The interest was so high that on auction sites, the prices for used units reached amounts almost three times higher than the catalogue prices. Despite this, Samsung did not decide to increase production.
The cost of components has killed the project's profitability
The main reason for the sudden halt in sales is the rapidly rising prices of key components. The previously mentioned Korean service indicates that drastic price increases for DRAM and NAND memory, as well as processors, have made it unprofitable for Samsung to continue producing the Trifold. With such a complicated design, the margin was minimal, and further sales could generate losses instead of profits.
Samsung has achieved its marketing goal – the world has seen that their triple-fold screen works and is ready for use. Currently, the company prefers to focus its resources on more profitable, standard models from the Fold and Flip series. Interestingly, in the US market, sales will continue until stock runs out, but in Korea, March 17 is the final date. The Galaxy Z Trifold did not appear in official Polish distribution, and given the market situation, it will likely remain just a technological curiosity available to a few.
