(CNN) — The nearly decades-long battle between Apple and Samsung for smartphone dominance may soon enter a new phase.
Samsung on Wednesday introduced three new foldable phones, including a redesigned model called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 that it hopes will appeal to a broader audience. The fresh design comes at a critical time: Apple is expected to release its first foldable iPhone in September.
But Samsung thinks Apple’s release could even help their phones, Drew Blackard, the company’s senior vice president of mobile product management, told CNN. An Apple foldable could bring more attention overall to those kinds of devices.
“People now kind of know what a foldable is, but many consumers in the US have never touched or even felt one,” he said.
Foldables represent a small slice of the smartphone market. But they give big-spending, profit-driving customers more choices at a time when most smartphones look the same.
One analyst compared the foldable market to airplane tickets.
“You’re going to have a certain number of first-class seats and a certain number of coach, and you’ve got to balance it,” said Dave Nicholson, chief tech advisor for research and intelligence firm Futurum, which monitors the tech sector. “You want to get as much money out of the market as possible, making people happy at every point along the way.”
Samsung, until this point, has been the primary seller of those “first-class seats.” It might soon find itself sharing the spotlight.
Samsung’s new phones
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 represents the biggest physical change to Samsung’s book-shaped phone in years. While Samsung has previously made its foldable phones thinner and lighter, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is shorter and wider. It almost resembles a Moleskin notebook that can nearly fit into the palm of your hand.
Samsung has marketed its Z Fold devices to early adopters and those who primarily use their phone for work in the past. With the Z Fold 8, it’s tailoring the design for more general tasks like watching videos and reading, the company says.
Some users previously complained that most clips aren’t made to fit the older Z Fold phone screens, resulting in large black bars at the top and bottom.
The new look could also improve how AI features work on Samsung’s foldables, market research firm Counterpoint Research wrote in a report just before Samsung’s announcement.
“Tasks such as summarizing documents, editing content, managing schedules and moving information across apps all benefit from more screen space and a more flexible layout,” the report said.
Samsung’s new phones will come with Google’s Gemini Notebook app, which can analyze documents and other files, and will also be able to take actions across apps through Gemini.
Samsung also launched a larger new foldable with a bigger screen and a sharper camera called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and an upgraded version of its flip phone.
But those improvements come at a steep cost. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at about $1,900, while the Galaxy Z Fold Ultra begins at roughly $2,100, and the Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at $1,200.
‘Stamp of approval’
Apple is the only major smartphone maker that has yet to release a foldable phone. That could change in September, according to Bloomberg, which has published reports that Apple will debut its first foldable device at its annual iPhone launch event.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst for TF International Securities known for watching Apple’s supply chain, has also posted on X that the company is ordering components for a foldable iPhone this year.
Apple did not respond to CNN’s request for comment regarding the reports and potential plans for a foldable iPhone.
Apple has a history of taking nascent tech products and making them hits – with a few misses. For example, its once-mocked AirPods are now an essential accessory for iPhone users.
Similarly, foldable phones could get “a little bit of (a) stamp of approval once Apple does it well,” said Gerrit Schneemann, an analyst following the smartphone market for Counterpoint Research.
The firm expects shipments of foldable phones to grow 21% annually in 2026 largely driven by Apple’s entry into the market and higher demand for book-style devices like Samsung’s new models.
Apple is estimated to capture 25% of the foldable market in 2026, compared to Samsung’s 32%.
Analysts are skeptical that foldable phones will ever become as popular as regular smartphones, largely because of their high prices.
But Blackard says that isn’t Samsung’s goal. Instead, he sees the market possibly returning to the pre-smartphone era, when it was normal for cell phones to come in different shapes and sizes.
“There was actually a big diversity of form factors for many years,” he said. “And my feeling is we’ll probably end up at a place like that.”
The-CNN-Wire
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