The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 has proven to be more successful than even Samsung dared to hope. According to ETNews, the company’s initial production batch already favored the new wide foldable – Samsung had planned to build 2.8 million Z Fold8 units this year, plus 2.0 million Z Fold8 Ultra units and 1.5 million Z Flip8 units.
However, now the Korean publication is reporting that Samsung is increasing the Z Fold8 production target by 1 million units for close to 4 million units total in 2026. Component suppliers have reportedly received the additional order.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8
The Galaxy Z Fold8 has helped the Z8 series smash pre-order records – the new foldables finally beat the 2019 record set by the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+. Of the 1.44 million Z8 units that were pre-ordered in South Korea, a whopping 70% were Z Fold8s. The new series became highly successful in Europe too with the wide foldable accounting for 40% of all pre-orders.
Interestingly, one insider attributes the big inrush of pre-orders to anxiety over memory-related price increases. They said (machine translated): “As memory semiconductor prices have risen this year, initial demand may have surged for pre-orders offering ‘double storage’ benefits (providing a 512GB model for the price of a 256GB one). Because the Z Fold8 received a positive response, demand for Samsung foldable phones is expected to increase compared to last year, leading to higher production volumes.”
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 and Z Fold8 Ultra
There is clearly a lot of demand for this new wide form factor foldable and Huawei (which pioneered it with the Pura X models) is not well-positioned to take advantage of that.
Apple is reportedly building a wide foldable of its own, which will be called the iPhone Ultra (according to rumors). This model may or may not have been delayed.
