Samsung Flip sells out like hot cakes

Samsung’s latest foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip, which made its India launch at a price of `1.10 lakh, has been sold out within minutes of its pre-booking sale that was open on Friday. The phone, which is the second foldable phone by the Korean tech giant in recent times, was up for pre-booking through the company’s official site and select retail stores across the country. Even though the company did not reveal the number of units that were sold in the first lot, it did say that pre-bookings will reopen soon.

“Thank you for the overwhelming response to #GalaxyZFlip. Pre-bookings are now on hold and will reopen soon,” said Samsung India on Twitter. The company is expected to dispatch this batch of Flip phones starting February 26 and start second round of pre-order sale on February 28. It aims to deliver the second batch in March.

The success of this latest phone is considered to be very crucial for Samsung as reports say the company has slipped to second position in the fastest growing premium smartphone category. According to a recent Counterpoint report, Samsung’s archrival Apple was the fastest growing premium smartphone brand in 2019 with 41 per cent yearly growth, while China’s OnePlus maintained leadership in the `30,000 and above premium segment in India.

On the other hand, Samsung dropped to second position and declined 2 percentage points year-on-year in the premium segment, the Counterpoint report said. It added that the Galaxy S10 Plus was the top-selling flagship for Samsung in 2019, despite the availability of cheaper models like Galaxy S10e. “As a result, Samsung’s ultra-premium segment shipments grew by 24 per cent YoY and the segment’s contribution to Samsung’s overall premium shipments reached 79 per cent in 2019, compared to 62 per cent in 2018,” it said.The new Galaxy Z Flip is Samsung’s second foldable phone (it launched Galaxy Fold in 2019) and is loaded with top-notch features.