For years, Samsung has owned the foldable smartphone market with the kind of dominance that breeds complacency. The Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip lines have commanded premium prices — often north of $1,800 — largely because no one else offered anything comparable at scale. That era is ending.
Apple is coming. And it’s forcing Samsung to do something it hasn’t had to do with foldables: compete on price.
According to reporting from Digital Trends, Samsung is expected to hold the line on pricing for the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8, resisting the urge to pass along increased component and tariff costs to consumers. The reason isn’t altruism. It’s Apple. The anticipated launch of Apple’s first foldable iPhone — widely expected later this year — has fundamentally altered Samsung’s calculus on what it can charge for a folding phone.
This is a significant strategic shift for a company that has historically treated its foldable lineup as ultra-premium products insulated from the pricing pressures that affect the rest of the smartphone industry. And it tells us something broader about where the foldable market is headed as it transitions from novelty to necessity.
The Apple Effect: A Rival That Changes Everything
Samsung’s foldable business has been remarkably profitable precisely because it has lacked a credible rival in the Western market. Chinese manufacturers like Huawei, Honor, and Oppo have produced impressive foldables, but their limited availability in North America and Europe has meant Samsung essentially competed against itself. That dynamic allowed the company to set prices with wide margins and minimal downward pressure.
Apple’s entry changes this overnight.
The iPhone Fold — or whatever Apple ultimately calls it — doesn’t even need to be a book-style foldable to disrupt Samsung’s pricing power. Reports from multiple outlets, including Bloomberg, suggest Apple’s first foldable will be a clamshell-style device, more akin to the Galaxy Z Flip than the Z Fold. But that distinction matters less than the symbolism. Once Apple validates the foldable form factor for its massive installed base, the entire category becomes mainstream in a way Samsung alone couldn’t achieve.
And mainstream categories don’t sustain ultra-premium pricing for long.
Samsung’s leadership appears to understand this. Rather than launch the Z Fold 8 at a higher price point and risk looking overpriced next to Apple’s first-generation foldable — which will carry enormous consumer curiosity and goodwill — Samsung seems to be choosing strategic restraint. The company reportedly plans to absorb higher costs from tariffs and component inflation rather than raise the sticker price, a move that prioritizes market share preservation over short-term margin optimization.
This is smart, if painful. Samsung has spent five generations building brand equity in foldables. Losing early adopters to Apple because of a $100 or $200 price differential would be a catastrophic unforced error.
The tariff situation adds another layer of complexity. With U.S. trade policy creating uncertainty around electronics pricing — Samsung manufactures many of its devices in Vietnam and South Korea, both subject to shifting tariff structures — the company faces genuine cost pressures that would normally justify a price increase. The decision to eat those costs rather than pass them through signals just how seriously Samsung views the competitive threat from Cupertino.
There’s also the matter of timing. Samsung typically launches its foldables in the summer, while Apple’s product announcements cluster in the fall. If Samsung prices the Z Fold 8 aggressively in July, it forces Apple to respond. If Samsung prices too high, it gives Apple an easy narrative: better value from a company known for premium products. Neither outcome is ideal for Samsung, but the first is clearly preferable.
What Samsung Is Actually Changing — And What It Isn’t
Holding prices steady is only part of Samsung’s response. The Z Fold 8 is expected to bring meaningful hardware improvements that suggest Samsung is trying to win on value rather than just matching last year’s price tag.
Reports indicate the device will feature a thinner profile, improved hinge durability, and enhanced camera capabilities — areas where previous Z Fold models have been criticized for lagging behind Samsung’s own Galaxy S Ultra line. The display crease, a persistent complaint among foldable users, is reportedly less visible on the new model. These aren’t incremental tweaks. They represent Samsung’s attempt to close the gap between what a foldable costs and what it delivers relative to a traditional flagship.
The software story matters too. Samsung has been aggressively integrating AI features across its Galaxy lineup, and the Z Fold 8 is expected to showcase new AI-driven multitasking capabilities that take advantage of the larger folding screen. Think enhanced split-screen functionality, smarter app continuity between the cover display and inner screen, and AI-powered productivity tools designed to justify the foldable form factor for business users — not just tech enthusiasts.
But here’s what Samsung isn’t changing: its fundamental market positioning. The Z Fold 8 will still be an expensive phone. Holding prices flat at roughly $1,799 doesn’t make it accessible to the mass market. It simply prevents the device from becoming even more niche at a moment when the category needs to grow.
Samsung’s real challenge isn’t just Apple. It’s the broader consumer perception that foldables remain fragile, expensive experiments rather than practical daily drivers. Five years into the foldable era, global shipments remain a small fraction of the overall smartphone market. Research from firms like IDC and Counterpoint suggests foldables accounted for roughly 1.5% to 2% of global smartphone shipments in 2024. That’s growth, but it’s not the kind of adoption curve that justifies Samsung’s enormous R&D investment in the category.
Apple’s entry could be the catalyst that pushes foldables past that tipping point. Paradoxically, Samsung may benefit enormously from Apple’s arrival even as it loses market share — because a larger overall market with a 40% share could be far more valuable than a tiny market with an 80% share. Samsung’s pricing restraint suggests its strategists are thinking exactly this way.
The competitive dynamics extend beyond just Apple and Samsung, of course. Google’s Pixel Fold line continues to iterate, and Chinese manufacturers are pushing aggressively into markets where they can compete. OnePlus, a brand with growing Western presence, has shown foldable ambitions. The market Samsung once had largely to itself is becoming crowded fast.
The Bigger Picture: Foldables at an Inflection Point
What makes this moment so consequential isn’t just one product launch or one pricing decision. It’s the convergence of several forces that will determine whether foldable phones become a dominant form factor or remain a permanent niche.
First, durability has improved dramatically. Early foldables were fragile things — screen protectors that peeled, hinges that loosened, creases that deepened with use. The latest generation from Samsung, Google, and Chinese manufacturers has largely solved these problems, or at least reduced them to the point where they’re no longer dealbreakers for most users. Apple’s entry will further validate the technology’s readiness for mainstream use, because Apple simply doesn’t ship products it considers unreliable at scale. Whatever compromises Apple makes with its first foldable, durability won’t be one of them.
Second, the app problem is diminishing. For years, foldable phones suffered from poor software optimization — apps that didn’t know what to do with a screen that changed shape. Google’s investment in large-screen Android optimization, driven partly by its own Pixel Fold and partly by the tablet resurgence, has improved the situation considerably. Samsung’s One UI has become genuinely good at managing the foldable experience. And if Apple enters the market, iOS developers will optimize for foldable displays with the kind of speed and enthusiasm they’ve never shown for Android foldables.
Third, consumer awareness is finally catching up to the technology. Walk into a carrier store today and foldables are prominently displayed. Carrier financing plans have made the high upfront cost more manageable. And the social currency of owning a foldable — the head-turning factor when you unfold your phone in a coffee shop — remains potent. These are soft factors, but they matter in consumer electronics.
So where does this leave Samsung? In a position that’s simultaneously stronger and more vulnerable than it’s ever been. Stronger because the market it pioneered is about to get much bigger. More vulnerable because the company that’s about to make it bigger is the most formidable competitor in consumer technology.
Samsung’s decision to hold pricing on the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 is a defensive move dressed up as consumer-friendly restraint. But it’s the right defensive move. In a market about to be reshaped by Apple’s entry, the worst thing Samsung could do is give price-sensitive consumers a reason to wait.
The foldable wars are about to get interesting. Samsung fired the first shot — not with a new product, but with a price it chose not to raise.
Dave Ritchie covers consumer technology and mobile industry strategy. He grew up in the Midwest, started tinkering with technology at a young age, and still believes the best companion for a long day of writing is a good dog.
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