Samsung recently announced the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 However, their sales have not been enough to set the world on fire

According to a report by noted mobile industry analyst Minqi Kuo, Samsung has not received as many pre-orders for its latest foldable handsets as it did last year In fact, Kuo reports that Samsung saw a 10% year-over-year decline from the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5

“Pre-orders for July 2024 are down 10% year over year Total Samsung foldable phone shipments this year are estimated to be about 8-9 million units, down slightly from last year,” Kuo said on Medium

Kuo attributed at least part of this decline to a lack of user experience with foldable phones, noting that foldable phones are selling fewer units across the board He said, “The lower-than-expected shipments of (Samsung- and Chinese-branded) Android foldable phones suggests that unless the user experience improves significantly, growth in this segment may be limited in the short term

He noted that while “AI-driven features led to stronger-than-expected initial demand” for the Galaxy S24, sales of that model have slowed dramatically in recent months Therefore, Kuo predicts that shipments of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series could be on par with the S24, indicating a lack of growth for the main flagship

It's also possible that the big push for AI features is not winning the hearts and minds of more casual smartphone buyers who won't pick up a phone on day one In his report, Kuo states, “Currently, there is no clear evidence that Google and Samsung's ongoing improvements to on-device AI services will trigger a new wave of device replacement demand”

It will be interesting to see what happens as Apple's intelligence brings more people into AI Kuo notes that “market participants remain optimistic about the dramatic increase in smartphone and PC shipments driven by on-device AI” He also considered the other side, saying that “this optimism could be modified if expectations are not exceeded by Apple Intelligence after the iPhone 16 series is released in 2H24”

Whether this downturn is AI-related or due to people who are not yet ready to spend heavily on foldable phones, something about Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 is not popular among phone buyers is clearly the reason