“93% of all foldables that have been sold in Spain are Samsung”

The foldable phone market is no longer at the point where Samsung had to explain why a folded screen might make sense. That phase is far away. Since that first Galaxy Fold of 2019 to the most recent generations, the category has gone from raising very basic doubts to occupying its own space within the high range. The question, now, is another: what to do with a family that has gained ground, that already has competitors looking at the same terrain and that hints that its next step may not be limited to repeating the known format.

That’s where your own conversation comes in. David Alonso. The director of Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics Iberia spoke with Xataka in Madrid after a meeting focused on the history of the brand’s folding devices. Its reading is relevant because the South Korean company is not speaking from outside the category, but from a position that it claims is dominant in the country.

Samsung no longer has to prove that foldables exist, now it has to defend why they are still its territory

The figure that the firm puts on the table helps to understand where it is speaking from. As Alonso defended during the meeting, with data provided by the company at the end of the first quarter of 2026, “93% of all foldables that have been sold in Spain are Samsung“It is a very high figure, but it should also be read with caution: it does not in itself describe the future of the category, but rather the starting point from which the company interprets this new phase. Having arrived earlier and, among other things, having built a recognizable family gives it an advantage.

Samsung has begun to leave clues on networks about the next move of its folding family

Samsung’s argument is based on a simple idea: trust was not given, it had to be built. It’s a reasonable way to count the journey. We are talking about an expensive category, with a folding screen as a differentiating element and with an initial history marked by very specific doubts. Alonso formulated it as a learning experience accumulated over seven generations.

“Since then there have been seven generations, seven generations of folding, because the family has been increasing. And what have we learned during this time? Well, we have learned several things. First, that trust is earned, because in the end it is true that it was a category that has created doubts.”

That tour also changed the way the foldable was presented. The first Fold clearly aimed at productivity, with a larger interior screen and a logic closer to the mobile that opens to work, read or do several tasks at the same time. Then came the Flip, that moved the axis towards another type of user: less focused on gaining screen space and more attracted to a compact, different format and more linked to social uses. This expansion of the family helps to understand why the brand is no longer talking about a single folding product, but rather about a category with different paths.

There is also an economic reading behind this bet. The director of Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics Iberia defended during the conversation that the segment of more than 1,500 euros is the one that is growing the most in the market and linked it to a greater demand from the premium user. In this vision, product quality, user experience and integrated artificial intelligence increasingly weigh in the purchasing decision.

The arrival of other manufacturers changes the balance of that conversation. For Samsung, the fact that there are more competitors in folding products serves as proof that the category has a long way to go. So we could say that if more brands enter the same field, the manufacturer that arrived first no longer competes only against the user’s initial doubt, but against alternatives that try to appropriate part of the story. Alonso himself put it this way during the interview.

“For us, the next milestone is to continue maintaining ourselves as a benchmark in the market. Because one thing has happened that is very important, which is that competition has arrived, which for us is very important, because when competition comes it means that there is opportunity and that we are doing something well, right? If not, we would be totally alone, which is not good.”

That’s why the teasers published Now they have more weight than a simple campaign. What was seen on social networks points to an evolution of the Galaxy foldable experience and suggests that the next step may move in the field of format. All this, together with the fact that part of Samsung’s launches in recent years have been concentrated between July and August, invites us to look towards an upcoming presentation, but at the time of publishing this article there are no official announcements.

Images | Xataka | Samsung

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