The foldables market is maturing and industry leader Samsung is feeling the gap close in quickly with rivals catching up with their more affordable foldable smartphones.
The South Korean giant is now facing competition from OPPO, Huawei, Vivo, Xiaomi, Motorola, Honor, Google and even TECNO globally who have in recent months launched their own versions of the clamshell and bookstyle foldable smartphones.
In China alone where there are multiple foldable options, Samsung ranks third after OPPO and Huawei who lead the table.
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In Kenya, Samsung has two rivals – OPPO and TECNO. The Galaxy Z Fold faces competition from the TECNO Phantom V Fold while the Galaxy Z Flip faces competition from the OPPO Find N2 Flip.
TECNO is slated to launch its Phantom V Flip smartphone while OPPO is also planning to launch the Find N3 Fold and Find N3 Flip later this year – the latter will launch in China later next week. They’ll be launching globally and thereafter in Kenya in a few weeks.
The OPPO Find N2 Flip goes for Ksh 130,000 while the Phantom V Fold goes for Ksh 130,000 which means they are more affordable than the recently launched Galaxy Z Flip5 and Z Fold5 which go for Ksh 193,000 and Ksh 325,000 respectively.
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 and Z Fold5 First Look Review: Catching Up With Rivals
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 vs OPPO Find N2 Flip Review: Closing the Gap
Samsung has realized this and wants to cash in as well but with its Fan Edition sub-branding which offers more affordable versions of the company’s flagship devices. This is something Samsung wants to do regularly and it is speculated that they will launch the Galaxy S23 FE in early September.
It is rumoured that starting next year, the Foldables will see a two-time release – one for the premium flagship versions and a later one for the FE versions. This means we might see a Galaxy Z Flip6 FE and Z Fold6 FE launch months later.
