Current Galaxy Z TriFold Pricing Has Samsung Losing Money With Each Sale

A report out of South Korea is painting a suboptimal picture for Samsung and its current nice guy pricing of the Galaxy Z TriFold.

Quickly rewind to before we learned official pricing of the device, we assumed the phone would cost roughly $3K based on similar devices already on the market. It was a very pleasant surprise when we learned it costs about $2400-$2500 when converted to US dollars. The issue is, it’s costing Samsung more to produce the device and the company loses money every time a unit is sold.

Situations like this are what Shrek would call onions — there are layers. Increasing prices of certain components doesn’t help, as well as the idea that Samsung isn’t trying to sell the device in bulk, treating it more as a limited proof of concept. To get users onboarded with the whole tri-folding thing, maybe it’s worth it to Samsung to lose a bit of money in the beginning? A Samsung VP had the following to say during the device’s launch event, which gives us an idea of Samsung’s strategy.

This is a special edition product, so rather than selling it in bulk, we prepared it so that those who want it can try it out. There were various issues, such as the memory price, but we made a grand decision to reduce it and achieve this difficult price.

It’s an admirable stance, but we know Samsung cannot make a living being generous to those who want to “try it out.” Samsung has competition from all angles currently, with Google even taking a bigger bite out of the premium US market, a pie that is typically devoured by only Samsung and Apple. Point being, Samsung probably finds it acceptable to take an initial loss to get folks excited and invested in its ecosystem.

Real talk? Everyone knows making money on hardware sales isn’t the play. It’s the monthly software services/AI subscriptions that bring in that never ending cash flow. I’ll still be in line to try this device when it launches in the US.

// The Bell (South Korea)