Two days before Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, a supply chain report has done what supply chain reports do best, it has leaked the numbers Samsung would rather announce itself. And the numbers are telling a story.
According to the report, which is citing industry sources, Samsung has asked its suppliers to prepare around 2.8 million units of the wide screen Galaxy Z Fold8. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is sitting at roughly 2 million units, and the Galaxy Z Flip8 at around 1.5 million. Read that order again. The new wide model is above the Ultra, and the Flip, for years the volume seller of the foldable line, is now the smallest target of the three.
So what is Samsung seeing? Demand for the wide format, clearly. The Fold8 Wide is rumoured to carry a 4:3 aspect ratio inner screen, which is the shape people actually want for reading, browsing and split screen work, closer to a small tablet than a stretched phone. And the timing is not a coincidence either. Apple’s first foldable, the rumoured iPhone Ultra, is expected in September, and Samsung producing its wide model in the biggest volume looks very much like getting the exact competitor to that device onto shelves first, in quantity.
On the hardware itself, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset is pretty much confirmed for the Fold8 pair. The rumour mill is adding a 7.6 inch inner display, a 5.5 inch cover screen, a 4,800mAh battery and a dual rear camera setup for the wide model. Rumours, remember, until Wednesday.
Production targets are not sales, obviously, companies miss them in both directions. But 2.8 million units of a brand new format is not a cautious experiment. Samsung is committing, and in two days we find out to what exactly.
