A few years back, Samsung made a massive decision to discontinue the much-loved Galaxy Note series of S Pen-equipped flagship smartphones. The company has since merged it with the Ultra model in the Galaxy S series while giving the Note’s slot in the second half of the year to foldables. It has seemingly turned out to be a smart move. The Korean firm’s mobile chief T.M. Roh has revealed that its foldable phones are on track to outsell the Galaxy Note this year.
“As we speak, they are almost on par,” Roh, the head of Samsung’s mobile division, said about the annual sales figure of the two device categories in a recent interview with CNET. “And the expectation [is] that with the Flip and Fold 5, we will be able to finally surpass that.” Roh made the comments shortly after unveiling the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 foldables during Samsung’s Unpacked event on Wednesday. The event took place in South Korea’s capital city of Seoul.
Samsung discontinued the Galaxy Note to make foldables mainstream
When Samsung first launched the Galaxy Note series in 2011, it was a niche phone for people willing to pay more for extra features such as a bigger screen and S Pen support. Over the years, the Note lineup amassed a strong fanbase, ushering in the era of big-screen smartphones. Samsung kept the Note series separate from the Galaxy S series, giving ample time for both in the market. The latter arrived early in the year, with the Note following in the second half.
However, with Samsung ushering the smartphone industry into the foldable era in 2019, the company had to work out ways to stay ahead of the competition that was about to come. The company found it best to discontinue the Note lineup and reserve the second half of the year for foldables. This happened in 2021 as Samsung pushed to make foldables mainstream. For Note fans, the company re-designed the Galaxy S Ultra to look like Note, even offering the S Pen built-in.
The Galaxy Note 20 series in 2020 was the last in the lineup. It reportedly sold about 12 million units. Last year, Samsung sold ten million foldable smartphones. Roh’s words suggest the company is on its way to selling more than 12 million foldables this year. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, which are now available to pre-order, should make up the vast majority of that figure. The new foldables bring a few notable improvements over their predecessors. They will go on sale on August 11.