Samsung's new folding smartphones are selling "well above expectations" and stores are having trouble keeping them in stock, according to a new report from Wave7 Research.
Wave7 tracks US smartphone sales by surveying reps at major carrier stores. While the new Z Flip3 and Z Fold3 aren't the most popular Samsung phones right now—that's still the Galaxy S21 Ultra and smaller S21—they're selling "above the levels of Galaxy Z predecessors," Wave7 says.
"Some reps said the Z Flip3 is selling somewhat better than the Z Fold3, but other reps said both were selling at comparable levels," Wave7 says.
Samsung reported similarly spectacular sales in a press release earlier this week.
"In the first month since launch in the US, Samsung sold more foldable devices than in the prior two years. More specifically, the Galaxy Z Fold3 has sold 5 times more units than the Galaxy Z Fold2 and the Galaxy Z Flip3 has sold 40 times more units than Galaxy Z Flip 5G during the same time period," the company says.
Samsung's market share is suffering from a severe product shortage, though, reps tell Wave7. Samsung's share dipped at T-Mobile because of short supply, with one rep telling the firm that Samsung phones were "slim pickings" and several others saying they didn't have any Galaxy S21 units, whether or not consumers wanted 'em. The Galaxy S21 and S21+ are both on back-order at Verizon, the report says.
People Buy What They Can Get
The Z Flip3 lists at $999.99, the same price as the Galaxy S21+, and it may be benefitting from the short supply of S21+ phones. In other words: people are coming into stores looking for a Samsung phone at a particular price point, and the Flip3 is what's there.
"Offers, customers who want to be cutting edge, and short supply of other top Galaxy phones have all been cited as reasons for the above-expected demand," the report says. "Some T-Mobile reps have recently said that they have not seen any inventory of GS21 variants for weeks."
And this Flip success comes in a month when Apple is absolutely gutting Samsung market share overall. Apple's sales share jumped from 66% to 73% at Verizon and from 60% to 75% at T-Mobile with the iPhone 13 launch, Wave7 says. Although the firm also says the chipset shortage has started to hit Apple, with some models and configurations being unavailable or backordered at various carriers.
"Verizon has no supply of the iPhone 12 Pro or 12 Pro Max. Nearly all of Verizon’s iPhone 11 variants are out of stock, except for purple 128GB and 256GB variants," the report says.
So consumers may not just be flipping for Samsung's new flip phone—they may be flipping for any phone they can get at all. The crunch may get even worse heading into the holiday season, Wave7 suggests.