The News: Samsung Electronics recently announced that the company saw growth more than double for its Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip smartphones from January to October 2022. The company also mentioned that growth of foldables were also strong in the business-to-business market around the financial services community. Read the announcement for more information.
Samsung Sees Growth More than Double for Its Foldables in the Enterprise Market
Analyst Take: Samsung’s report of more than double growth for its Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip smartphones over the first three quarters of this year was impressive. It also wasn’t surprising to see the company report that the growth of foldable smartphones is happening in the B2B enterprise market. Foldable devices make a lot of sense for employees, especially for the road warrior types.
I must admit that early on I was a bit skeptical on this one. In fact, I was flat out wrong about the trajectory of the category until a few fellow analysts war gamed a bit with me, which I appreciated. We all have blind spots my friends, and it’s always great to get consensus or opposing viewpoints which is healthy. In my opinion, it’s obvious foldables are here to stay as a premium segment of the smartphone market.
With that said, Samsung mentioned that from January to October 2022, the number of smartphones (e.g., Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip) Samsung contracted to enterprise customers increased by 105 percent compared to the same period last year. According to Samsung, the foldable smartphone market is expected to reach 16 million units worldwide which is an increase of 73 percent year-over-year with mainstream consumers coupled with business-to-business customers adopting them.
Specifically, on the business-to-business front, Samsung cited workers in the financial services industry such as equity analysts have been adopting the Galaxy Z Fold4 at a more rapid rate. In my opinion, this makes perfect sense and an excellent use case for foldables for myriad reasons. Typically, equity analysts tend to be on the road often visiting clients or attending conferences to learn more about industries for their analysis. Often, they are taking notes and frequently checking their Bloomberg Professional Application, checking news, and their investment portfolio. The ability to have a foldable screen with extra real-estate that you can interact with without having to take your notebook is a major benefit.
The company also noted that DocuSign, which is the world’s leading e-signature solution, is also available and optimized for Android 12L and the Galaxy Z Fold4. This allows users the ability to e-sign documents much more seamlessly in the field. Job functions like this would be excellent for would-be working professionals such as sales, insurance agents and the like, who are constantly visiting clients in the field where a quick e-signature would do. Although a lot of e-signatures would be handled on a laptop or tablet, times are changing.
Wrapping it up, the market for foldables is projected to perform well in the next few years and Samsung is at the forefront of it — and rivals are taking note.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.
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