Preorders for new Galaxy foldable smartphones exceed 1 million

The Samsung Electronics Co. foldable Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 could be the next big thing on the smartphone market.

The company on Tuesday said it sold from Aug. 1-7 the final 1,020,000 units of the two models allotted for domestic pre-order.

The figure is close to that of the Galaxy S23 series, which sold 1,090,000 units in a week.

Leading preorders among foldable smartphones, the Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 also beat the preregistration performance of their predecessors Z Fold 4 and Flip 4, which collectively sold 970,000 units over the same period, by over 5%.

The preorder ratio of the Z Flip 5 to Fold 5 was 70:30. Last year, the global sales ratio of the Z Flip 4 to the Fold 4 was 60:40.

The new models commanded high popularity even in preorders from the nation's three telecom companies.

SK Telecom Co. said about 62% of those who reserved the models were in their 20s to 30s according to its online mall T Direct Shop.

For the Z Flip 5, 35% of all preorders were from women in their 20s and 30s and male subscribers in their 30s and 40s accounted for 53% of those reserving the Z Fold 5.

"The '5! My Wonder Flip' campaign, which was prepared to help people feel our company's special benefits, was especially a hit among youth customers," said Lim Bong-ho, head of SK Telecom's mobile division.

KT Corp. said its preorders for the foldable Galaxy Z 5 smartphone series exceeded the number of its predecessor. Its sales ratio of the Z Flip 5 to the Fold 5 was 75:25.

The company said this was due to higher customer interest and preference for the "double storage" benefit for preorder customers and the cover screen of the Z Flip 5.

Those buying foldable smartphones can take advantage of promotions such as lottery events, discounts on handsets using affiliated credit cards and trade-in value for used models, and content use benefits.

"We hope that people enjoy the rich benefits of the Galaxy Foldable series, which is available through preregistration," said Kim Byung-gyun, KT executive director and head of the company's device business division.

LG Uplus Corp. said the Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 showed better market response than their previous models.

The Z Flip 5 Garbage Time Edition, with a supply of just 1,000 units, exceeded the initial number of preregistrations. The ratio of LG Uplus' preorders of the Z Flip 5 to the Fold 5 was 70:30.

A Galaxy pop-up store at Daily Teum, a cultural complex in Seoul popular with Gen MZ comprising millennials and Gen Z, attracted more than 20,000 visitors, the most in history for such a store.

LG Uplus said the number of daily visitors averaged over 2,000, with the figure double that of the pop-up store for the launch of the previous models.

Those who preordered the items could get them from Tuesday, with the official release date on Friday.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com