Samsung is not losing sleep over Apple’s expected move into the smartphone market’s foldable end. After yesterday’s Unpacked event in London, TM Roh said Samsung’s lead in foldables is built on seven years of experience and cannot be caught up with overnight.
The timing matters because Apple is expected to launch its first foldable iPhone later this year, putting Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold line on a collision course with a serious new rival, especially in the United States. Roh’s message was blunt: Samsung will keep extending its lead by “setting new standards,” a line meant to signal that the company sees the next fight as one of pace, not panic.
Samsung’s advantage is not just that it got there first. Seven years in the foldable segment means it has spent far longer solving the problems that come with a flexible screen, a folding hinge and a phone that must still feel reliable in daily use. That history is why the expected Apple device is being measured against the Galaxy Z Fold 8 rather than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. In plain terms, Apple’s first entry is expected to be a book-style foldable, while Samsung’s Ultra model sits at the more ambitious end of the range.
That still leaves Apple with a real opening. Samsung has a clamshell option in the Galaxy Z Flip series, but Apple does not seem to be making a clamshell foldable any time soon. For now, the first direct challenge looks set to land where Samsung has built its strongest reputation: the larger foldable form factor that opens like a small tablet and folds back into a phone.
Roh’s confidence also rests on the fact that Samsung is not standing still. The company demonstrated the Galaxy Z TriFold as a way to push the envelope further, and it still has the option of making rollable phones. That matters because Samsung’s edge has always been more than one product; it has been a habit of moving before rivals do, then using that head start to define what buyers expect from the category.
Apple’s entry will test how much of Samsung’s lead comes from engineering and how much comes from familiarity. Roh is betting that both count, and that neither can be erased quickly. If Apple’s foldable iPhone arrives later this year as expected, the real question will not be whether Samsung is in the market. It will be whether Samsung can keep making the market move on its terms.
