After Apple unveiled its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, interest in Samsung Electronics' foldable phones also appears to have grown. Samsung did not directly mention Apple's impact, but an analysis says Apple's market entry may have helped expand demand for foldables as European sales and search volumes rose at the same time.

On Oct. 22 (local time), IT outlet Ars Technica reported that Samsung said on its official UK blog that its 2026 foldable lineup is showing a faster sales pace than last year's products. Combined sales of the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra in Europe rose 45 percent compared with the Galaxy Z Fold7.

Samsung did not separately disclose sales of the Galaxy Z Flip8. It has previously said large-screen foldables account for about 80 percent of total foldable purchases.

Search volume also surged. Samsung said searches for the Galaxy Z8 series in Europe rose 460 percent week on week from Sept. 6 to 12. Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo on Sept. 9. Total searches for the Galaxy Z Fold8 in September also rose 260 percent. Samsung did not directly mention Apple, but with the timing of the announcement overlapping with changes in search volume, the possibility has been raised that interest in foldables overall increased.

In the United States, preorders for the Galaxy Z8 series last month ran 30 percent higher than a year earlier. Samsung did not disclose additional latest figures for the U.S. market. Foreign media reports said there were moves to expand production of the Galaxy Z Fold8, which adopted a wider screen ratio similar to the iPhone. Samsung did not disclose the individual sales mix between the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra.

The wider screen means more than a simple design change. It makes more efficient use of space when watching videos than a foldable screen closer to a square, and it is also advantageous for reading documents or using apps not optimized for portrait screens. As Samsung added a standard large-screen model, there is also the possibility that this design could spread to other manufacturers.

Still, high prices remain an obstacle. The iPhone Duo starts at 3.29 million won, and Samsung's wider-screen Galaxy Z Fold8 is priced at 2,278,100 won for the 256GB model. After launch, some distribution channels also sold the products at a discount. As prices for premium bar-type smartphones have also risen recently, the price gap with foldables is narrowing to the level of hundreds of dollars.

Samsung has been advancing related technology since launching its first foldable phone in 2019. As consumer interest in foldables rises with Apple's market entry, attention is on whether the wider-screen design will spread across the industry.