Since the Samsung Galaxy Fold release was so plagued by mishaps, including durability problems and a release date pushed back eight months in total, it wasn't clear how many people would be interested in the folding phone, but it seems a million people were willing to put down money to buy the device.
That's according to the president of Samsung Electronics, Young Sohn, speaking at an event hosted by TechCrunch, who stated that Samsung had sold a million Galaxy Fold units.
Update: No, Samsung has not sold a million Folds - It seems Sohn misspoke, and Samsung has retracted the statement, according to SlashGear. He mistook the yearly sales targets for actual sales, the company originally confirmed to Yonhap News, though it didn't specify the Fold's actual sales. The original article follows.
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One million units is an impressive figure given the device costs $1,980 / £1,900 / AU$2,900 to buy, and surprising too given that figure only accounts for about three months of sales.
When it became clear several phone companies would be releasing folding phones, there was a lot of excitement, but a year of delays, phones that were launched but never released, and negative press around the devices, meant we weren't too sure how the first widely available foldable handset would land.
It seems we shouldn't have been concerned, though, because 1,000,000 people can't all be wrong.
Are foldable phones the new big thing?
Now that the Samsung Galaxy Fold is a big hit, things are looking bright for the Motorola Razr 2019, the second widely available foldable phone. It has got a lower price tag than the Fold, so when it becomes available in January 2020 it could be a slightly more affordable option for people who want a phone that closes.
This sales figure is also an encouraging sign for the plenty of companies that have confirmed they are working on such devices, like Xiaomi, TCL, Microsoft, Oppo and Vivo.
In addition, there are a few companies that had been rumored to be working on foldable phones, with nothing confirmed – Apple, Google, Sony and LG are all said to have something in the works, and again this sales figure might be encouragement for these companies to carry on with these projects.
Saying that, it's still early days for foldable phones, and we'll have to see how popular the next few devices are, and how well the Galaxy Fold does in the long run, before making any wider judgements.
