Samsung Says Galaxy Z Fold8 Demand Is Rising as iPhone Duo Nears

Samsung says customers are increasingly picking the Galaxy Z Fold8 over Apple's iPhone Duo, pointing to rising demand and a surge in search interest in the weeks since Apple took the wraps off its first foldable iPhone. The claim lands at an awkward moment for Apple: the iPhone Duo was unveiled on September 9, but it won't actually reach store shelves until October 23 — more than ten weeks after the Galaxy Z Fold8 went on sale starting at $1,899. That gap, more than any single feature, is what analysts and now Samsung itself are pointing to as the reason some foldable shoppers aren't waiting around.

What Samsung is saying about rising demand

In comments given to reporters this week, a Samsung mobile executive in the UK said customer demand for the Galaxy Z Fold8 lineup has increased by double digits since the phone's launch, and that active Google searches for Samsung foldables have jumped sharply over the past month. The executive framed the iPhone Duo's arrival as a net positive for Samsung rather than a threat, arguing that Apple's entry into the foldable category has driven more shoppers to compare the two phones — and that a meaningful share of them are choosing the Fold8.

It's the kind of statement a company only makes when the numbers are moving in its favor, and Samsung has reason to be vocal about it. The Galaxy Z Fold8 is the first entry in Samsung's redesigned foldable lineup, built around a thinner hinge and a lighter chassis after years of criticism that book-style foldables were too bulky for daily use. If Apple's first foldable is pulling attention toward the category rather than away from Samsung, that validates years of engineering investment — and gives Samsung a reason to talk about it publicly before Apple's phone even ships. The executive went further, describing Samsung's position in the foldable category as "undeniable" momentum and insisting the company's lead over rivals entering the space is stronger than ever, rather than under threat from a single new competitor.

The South Korea data point: a sales bump before the Duo even launched

The UK comments echo an earlier, more concrete data point out of South Korea. In the week following Apple's September 9 unveiling of the iPhone Duo, domestic sales of the Galaxy Z Fold8 rose by roughly 10 percent compared with the prior week, according to telecom industry sources cited in South Korean business media. That bump happened before anyone outside Apple had hands-on access to the iPhone Duo — it was driven purely by the announcement itself, the pricing Apple revealed, and the realization that the device wouldn't actually ship for more than a month.

Analysts covering the Korean carrier market have floated a simple explanation: some shoppers who were holding off on a foldable purchase to see what Apple would announce went ahead and bought a Fold8 once they saw the iPhone Duo's price and timeline. A $1,999 starting price and a six-week wait between announcement and shipping gave would-be Apple foldable buyers very little urgency to keep waiting, while the Fold8 sat on shelves ready to buy immediately.

Price and availability: the gap that's driving buyers

The two phones are closer in price than past Samsung-versus-Apple comparisons, but the gap is still real. The Galaxy Z Fold8 starts at $1,899 for its base configuration on Samsung's US store, while the iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 for 256GB, climbing to $2,199 for 512GB, $2,599 for 1TB, and $3,199 for the 2TB model, according to Apple's online store. That's a $100 difference at the entry tier — modest on its own, but it compounds with the availability gap. Apple is also offering trade-in credit of between $35 and $885 toward a new iPhone Duo for customers handing in an iPhone 8 Plus or newer, along with 0 percent financing options, according to its online store — incentives aimed at narrowing that price gap for shoppers who already own an older iPhone.

Samsung's foldable has been purchasable, in stores and shipping to doorsteps, since early August. Apple didn't open iPhone Duo preorders until October 16 and won't put the phone in customers' hands until October 23 in the US and more than 70 other countries and regions, with a second wave of markets following on October 30, per Apple's own announcement. For a shopper who wants a book-style foldable phone right now, in October, the Fold8 has had roughly a 10-week head start with zero competition from Apple in that form factor.

For readers trying to decide which phone actually makes more sense for them, Pandromeda's side-by-side comparison of specs and pricing breaks down the cameras, displays, and software differences in more detail than the topline price gap alone can tell you.

iPhone Duo: what $1,999 buys when it finally arrives

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo on September 9, its first entry into the foldable phone category, presented by new CEO John Ternus, who took over the top job on September 1. Ternus called it "the most transformational change to iPhone since the original," and the hardware backs up some of that framing: the Duo unfolds into a 7.6-inch inner display that Apple says is about 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max's screen, with a 5.4-inch outer display that covers roughly 90 percent of the iPhone 18 Pro's screen area when folded shut.

The phone is built around a Grade 5 titanium enclosure with a mirror-polished finish, a 3D-printed hinge cover, and Ceramic Shield on the back paired with the newer Ceramic Shield 2 up front. It comes in two colors, star white and night sky, and ships as an eSIM-only device in the US, with no physical SIM tray. Preorders opened October 16 at 5 a.m. Pacific time, and Apple says the phone will reach customers starting October 23 in the US and dozens of other markets, with a later October 30 wave covering 28 additional countries and regions. Shoppers weighing financing or carrier trade-in offers can find a rundown of current deals in Pandromeda's iPhone Duo trade-in and carrier deal roundup.

Galaxy Z Fold8: what $1,899 buys today

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold8 alongside the Fold8 Ultra and Flip8 at a Galaxy Unpacked event in London on July 22, with the phones reaching store shelves in early August — meaning Samsung has had a two-and-a-half-month runway on shelves before Apple's foldable even arrives. The headline engineering story for this generation is weight: Samsung says the Fold8 weighs 201 grams, down from 253 grams on the Galaxy Z Fold5 and lighter than the 215-gram Galaxy Z Fold7, which Samsung's own newsroom calls the result of re-engineering "hundreds of components and auxiliary parts to the fraction-of-a-gram level." At 9.7 millimeters folded, Samsung describes the standard Fold8 as the world's lightest book-style foldable, with the Fold8 Ultra measuring 8.9 millimeters.

Samsung's pitch has consistently been that foldables needed to stop feeling like a compromise next to a flagship bar phone, and the Fold8's weight and thickness reductions are aimed squarely at the people who found earlier Z Fold generations too heavy for daily carry. That positioning matters now specifically because it gives Samsung a phone that's already proven itself in the market for weeks, rather than one still waiting on its first review cycle.

Search interest versus confirmed sales

It's worth separating the two different claims circulating this week. A spike in Google searches for Samsung foldables shows curiosity — people comparing options, reading specs, or simply reacting to Apple's announcement by looking up what else is out there. It is not, on its own, proof of purchases. The more concrete number is the reported South Korean sales increase in the week after the iPhone Duo's unveiling, which reflects actual transactions rather than search behavior, even though it covers only one market and one week.

Samsung's broader double-digit demand claim sits somewhere between those two data points: it's a company statement about its own sales trends rather than independently audited figures, but it's also consistent with what the Korean data showed in September. Neither Samsung nor Apple has published unit sales figures for either phone, and neither company is likely to do so before their respective fiscal quarterly reports.

Why timing matters this year specifically

Foldable phones are still a small slice of the overall smartphone market, but the category has become a genuine battleground now that Apple has entered it. Samsung has spent seven generations — going back to the original Galaxy Fold in 2019 — working through hinge durability, display creasing, and weight complaints that keep mainstream buyers away from the format, according to Samsung's own account of the Fold8's engineering history. Apple arriving in the category validates that the format has matured enough for a mass-market company to bet on it, but it also means Apple is starting its foldable learning curve in generation one while Samsung is iterating on its eighth.

That head start is exactly what Samsung's demand commentary is built on. A six-week-plus gap between Apple's announcement and its ship date is a long window for a determined foldable shopper to simply buy the phone that's already available, especially when it costs $100 less to start.

What's next

The real test of Samsung's demand claim arrives once the iPhone Duo actually ships. Preorder numbers for Apple's foldable, which opened October 16, haven't been disclosed, and the first independent read on how the Duo is selling won't come until after its October 23 US launch and the following holiday shopping stretch. Samsung, for its part, is likely to keep highlighting the comparison for as long as the availability gap favors it — and will have an answer ready if Apple's October 23 launch triggers its own sales bump once the Duo is finally in customers' hands rather than just on a spec sheet.

Both companies report quarterly earnings in the weeks ahead, which should offer the first numbers-backed look at whether Apple's foldable debut dented Samsung's Fold8 momentum, boosted it as Samsung claims, or simply expanded the foldable market enough for both phones to sell well. Shoppers who want to lock in an iPhone Duo as soon as it ships can see current preorder windows and carrier details in Pandromeda's iPhone Duo preorder guide. Until then, the clearest fact available to shoppers is the one neither company disputes: the Fold8 is on shelves now, and the iPhone Duo isn't — yet.

Written byNadia Osei

Nadia Osei covers mobile and consumer gadgets for Pandromeda: smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, earbuds and smart-home devices. She tracks launches, software updates and pricing across Apple, Google, Samsung and the rest, and builds comparisons from the manufacturers' published specifications.

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