Samsung Southwest Asia CEO Admits Foldables Need More Competition To Go Mainstream

Every other headline this season frames the foldable iPhone as the threat Samsung is racing to beat. At Galaxy Unpacked in London, Samsung's own regional chief made the opposite case, that Apple's arrival, and more rivals generally, might be exactly what the foldable category needs to finally go mainstream.

I asked JB Park, CEO and President of Samsung Southwest Asia, why foldables remain a fraction of India's premium segment, and what changes in Samsung's strategy to turn the foldable from a statement purchase into a mainstream choice. He did not dispute the premise.

"There is still an awareness issue that prevents the foldables from becoming the customer's choice among the variety of flagships that they can invest into," Park said. Then came the telling part, where his fix ran not through Samsung's own marketing but through his competitors. "There will be a faster adoption of foldables as more competition comes into this segment. The more brands there are to compete with, the greater the awareness for the foldables."

That is a striking thing to hear from the market leader. Samsung is expected to hold close to 89 percent of India's foldable shipments in 2026, according to Counterpoint Research, and has led the category since introducing it here in 2019. Yet Park is effectively saying Samsung has taken foldables about as far as it can alone, and now needs rival brands, Apple chief among them, to convince Indian buyers the form factor is worth owning.

89 Percent of a Sliver

The paradox is that Samsung has won this category so completely that it has run out of new people to sell to. Its dominance is real, but look at what it dominates. Counterpoint expects India's foldable segment to grow around 8 percent this year and cross 3 million cumulative shipments for the first time since 2019, yet foldables are still projected to make up just 2 to 3 percent of the smartphone market by value, kept niche by an average selling price near 1,800 dollars, roughly five times that of a normal phone.

So Samsung's 89 percent is 89 percent of a sliver. Park noted foldables now account for about 20 percent of Samsung's flagship sales, but that is a share of its own loyal buyers rather than genuine category expansion. After eight generations, Samsung is very good at selling foldables to people already inclined to buy them, and much weaker at converting the far larger pool of premium buyers who still choose a conventional slab flagship.

The Global Market is Already Proving Park Right

Look beyond India and you can see Park's own logic playing out in real time. Counterpoint projects the global foldable market to grow 21 percent year on year in 2026, a healthy jump, and it credits that acceleration to tighter competition among leading vendors and Apple's expected entry into the segment.

Here is the part that matters. As that competition arrives, Samsung's global foldable share is projected to fall to 32 percent in 2026, down from 40 percent a year earlier, with Apple expected to take around a quarter of the market and Huawei a similar slice. On paper, that is Samsung losing ground and in practice, it is the entire argument Park made to me. The pie is growing fast enough that a smaller slice of a much bigger market is the trade Samsung appears willing to accept, because the alternative, sitting alone atop a category that will not expand, is worse. India, where Samsung still holds nearly 89 percent, is simply an earlier stage of the same story, a market that has not yet had the competition it needs to grow.

Why Apple is the Ally, Not the Enemy

This is why the foldable iPhone, expected in September, matters more to Samsung than the usual rivalry suggests. Apple does not just bring a competing product. It brings the one thing Samsung has struggled to manufacture alone, which is mass awareness.

When Apple enters a category, it drags hundreds of millions of loyal iPhone users into even considering the form factor, and it validates that form factor for buyers who would never take a punt on it based on a Samsung ad. Counterpoint expects Apple's first foldable to capture under 1 percent of the Indian segment this year purely because of its late launch, but the longer-term effect is the point. The iPhone's real contribution is not its own early sales, it is the tide it raises, and Samsung, sitting on the largest share of that tide, stands to benefit more than anyone.

The One Lever Samsung Cannot Pull

The obvious alternative would be for Samsung to grow the category itself by making a cheaper foldable, and asked about a sub-1,000-dollar model, Park did not rule it out, pointing to Samsung's Fan Edition strategy on its S-series. But there is no affordable foldable in this lineup, and the timing explains why.

This is the most expensive year for phone components in over a decade, as the AI build-out pulls memory manufacturing toward data-centre chips, and Samsung has priced this lineup higher than ever, with the Galaxy Z Flip8 at Rs 1,24,999, the Fold8 at Rs 1,79,999 and the Fold8 Ultra at Rs 1,99,999. The one lever Samsung could pull to democratise foldables itself is jammed shut exactly when it might have wanted it, which leaves competition as the only route left.

Strip away the launch gloss and Samsung's position is more delicate, and more interesting, than 89 percent suggests. It leads a category that refuses to go mainstream in India even after 8 years, is already ceding global share as rivals pile in, and finds the affordable route blocked by a crisis outside its control.

The most dominant player in Indian foldables is quietly rooting for its biggest rival, because after eight generations at the front, Apple walking in may be the best thing that happens to Samsung's foldable business.