The following is a contributed opinion piece by Charles Kim, President of Samsung Malaysia Electronics, shared with ProductNation. The views are the author’s own.
Contents
Quick facts
- Author: Charles Kim, President of Samsung Malaysia Electronics
- The argument: more brands entering the foldable market grows awareness and pushes the whole category forward
- Malaysia: mobile phone use reached 99.6% and internet use 98.3% of individuals in 2025, per national ICT data cited by Samsung
- Momentum: Galaxy Z Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra pre-orders grew about 60% across Southeast Asia and Oceania, with switchers up more than 60%
- Lighter: the Galaxy Z Fold8 is Samsung’s lightest fold at 201g, down from 276g in 2019
Foldable smartphones were often thought of as little more than a niche category. That was years ago. This year we are seeing a drastic change, and as more major technology brands enter the foldables scene, the sentiment should not be apprehension.
For Samsung, which introduced its first Galaxy Fold in 2019, it is a sign that an idea we had early on is becoming increasingly relevant to the wider mobile industry. This is good news: as more brands enter a category, awareness grows, and more people begin to understand what foldable technology is, what it can do, and why they might want one.
From "Does a phone fold?" to "Why do I need a foldable?"
The future of foldables should be about letting people decide why one makes sense for the way they live. For some it is a larger canvas, such as the Galaxy Z Fold8’s 4:3 screen for watching, reading or gaming, that folds into a pocketable form. For others it is productivity on an all-in-one device like the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, or the compactness of a flip phone like the Galaxy Z Flip8. We broke down who each is built for in our guide to Samsung’s 2026 foldable line-up.
From curiosity to consideration
Malaysia is a particularly interesting market. The latest national data on information and communications technology shows mobile phone usage among individuals reached 99.6% in 2025, while internet usage reached 98.3%. Malaysians are already deeply accustomed to mobile technology across work, entertainment and everyday life.
When virtually everyone already carries a smartphone, it raises the question of whether a different kind of phone can meaningfully improve how someone uses it. Samsung’s 2024 post-launch research across Southeast Asia and Oceania, including 300 Malaysian respondents, found strong purchase interest in the Galaxy Z series among younger consumers, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, with foldables associated with productivity, creativity and photography. People no longer perceive foldables as curiosities; they are considering what one can do for their lives, and with more brands entering, that consideration will only grow.
Competition raises the bar
Foldables are an unusually complex engineering challenge. Making a screen fold is only the first step: the industry must continually address durability, weight, hinges, software and displays, while still advancing the battery and camera features users value in any phone. Competition is exactly what pushes us to learn and improve with every generation of the Z series.
Our first Galaxy Fold weighed 276 grams. Galaxy Z Fold8 now weighs 201 grams, making it Samsung’s lightest fold yet, while advancing the display, hinge and internal architecture. Across Galaxy Z Fold8, Fold8 Ultra and Flip8 we have expanded beyond a single definition of what a foldable should be: one built around immersive discovery, another around productivity and content creation, another around compactness and self-expression.
That progress happened because consumers told us, directly and indirectly, what would make foldables more useful. We charted every generation since 2019 in our look at how the Galaxy Z Fold has changed.
The consumer will decide what comes next
As more consumers encounter different approaches to foldable design, they become more informed and ask better questions. Is a foldable useful? Does it help me work? Is it durable enough? Does its size and shape actually make a difference? Those questions will determine the category’s future. We are already seeing the shift: less than a month after the latest Galaxy Z8 series was unveiled at Unpacked, Galaxy Z Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra pre-orders grew by approximately 60% over the previous generation across Southeast Asia and Oceania, and switchers from other brands to the latest Fold rose more than 60%.
A bigger category, a bigger responsibility
Being the pioneer in foldables has never meant we expect to be the only ones in the conversation. A thriving category needs different ideas and approaches. When more companies challenge established assumptions, engineers have more problems to solve and developers have more reasons to rethink how software works with hardware, and consumers benefit. After seven generations of Galaxy Z innovation, and now into our eighth, we will keep investing, listening and innovating, not because competition has arrived, but because it gives the whole industry a reason to push further.
The foldable story is no longer about proving a smartphone can fold. It is about discovering what else becomes possible when it does, and I believe we are only beginning to find out.
This byline was contributed by Samsung Malaysia Electronics. Read the original on Samsung Newsroom Malaysia.
