Samsung sold more than 20% more Galaxy Z Fold8 phones in South Korea in the week of 23rd to 29th October than in the week before. That was the week Apple’s first foldable, the iPhone Duo, went on sale there. The figure comes from Korean telecom industry data.
The two phones are as close as rivals get. Both are short, wide, book-style foldables about the shape of a passport, and both open to a 7.6-inch inner screen. We put them side by side in September, the day after Apple announced the Duo. Shortly after that announcement, Fold8 sales in Korea rose about 10% week on week.
What the 20% measures
It compares one week with the one before it, 16th to 22nd October. It covers one model in one country. It isn’t a rise since launch, and without the unit count there’s no way to tell how many extra phones that is.
Other things were pushing buyers towards the Fold8 that week, and the first is price. In Korea the 256GB iPhone Duo costs KRW 3.29 million, or about KES 314,000. The 256GB Fold8 costs KRW 2,278,100, about KES 217,000. That’s a gap of roughly KRW 1 million, or about KES 97,000.
Then the subsidies went up. Korean mobile operators pay part of a phone’s price when you buy it on one of their plans, so a bigger subsidy means a cheaper phone at the counter. KT raised its Fold8 subsidy on 21st October, and SK Telecom and LG Uplus followed on 22nd October. Each rise was about KRW 100,000, or about KES 9,500, and it took the most you can get off a Fold8 to KRW 600,000, about KES 57,000, on eligible premium plans. So a Fold8 on a premium plan got cheaper in the two days before the Duo went on sale.
The Duo also had a rough first week. Within a weekend of launch, owners in several countries posted photos of inner screens cracking along the hinge. On 26th October Apple said it was “aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units” and told affected owners to contact AppleCare, its support service, for a replacement. John Ternus, Apple’s chief executive, said on 2nd November that only “a very small percentage” of units had come back over the display. He also said Apple can’t yet meet demand for the Duo and can’t predict when supply will catch up.
Some Korean buyers have apparently returned Duos with no visible fault, worried the screen would fail later. Nothing shows that any of them then bought a Fold8, or that the cracks moved the number at all.
Samsung is still discounting
Samsung has extended sign-ups for its New Galaxy AI Subscription Club to 30th November, a month past the original deadline. The club is a Korean buy-back plan for unlocked Fold8, Fold8 Ultra and Flip8 phones bought from Samsung’s own store. You pay a monthly fee, KRW 9,900 or about KES 940 on the Fold8’s one- and two-year plans, and Samsung promises to pay back up to 50% of the phone’s reference price if you return it after a year. The two-year plan guarantees 40% on the Fold8, and the three-year plan 25%.
Samsung is also adding up to KRW 100,000 to trade-in values through November and running a year-end promotion to 31st December. So Korean buyers can keep getting the Fold8 for less right through the holidays, which makes November’s figure the next one to watch.
Samsung’s own figures show its new Folds were selling well before the Duo arrived. On 22nd October it said the Fold8 and Fold8 Ultra together sold 45% more in Europe in the nine weeks after their 7th August launch than the Fold7 did in the same weeks of 2025. That compares two phones with one, and it covers weeks before anyone could buy a Duo.
We think Apple’s arrival has made more people look at foldables, and the September bump, which came before the Duo was even on sale, fits that. But the 20% week also came with a KES 97,000 price gap, fresh subsidies and a rival in short supply. Put together, those could explain the jump without a single Duo buyer switching.
And in Kenya
There are no Kenyan sales figures for either phone. The price gap here is far wider, though. Samsung’s Kenyan price for the 256GB Fold8 was KES 243,900 when we compared the two in September. The 256GB Duo arrived at Abufulan Store in Nairobi at KES 435,000 on 26th October. That’s KES 191,100 more, about double the Korean gap. The Fold8 is sold here by Samsung with a local warranty, while every Duo in a Kenyan shop is imported, and Apple can limit repairs to the country where a phone was first sold.
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