Samsung has been successful in selling its smartphones to corporate customers. For example, the 740 thousand Galaxy XCover Pros it sold to Walmart replaced handheld scanners and walkie-talkies on the store floor. But now a new category is gaining popularity among business users – foldable phones.
The company revealed that between January and October of this year, it sold 105% more foldable devices to business customers than it did during the same period in 2021. Samsung isn’t offering a breakdown of Z Fold4 and Z Flip4 sales, but we get the feeling that it is the Galaxy Z Fold4 that is the big winner.
It’s all about the large internal screen – professionals need to look at data from multiple sources and juggle multiple apps at once. And many of these apps have native support for the Z Fold4 form factor.
For example, Bloomberg Professional is an app used by investment professionals such as traders, analysts and portfolio managers. They can quickly go from chatting on Instant Bloomberg on the front page to viewing real-time news, stories and market data on the large internal screen.
DocuSign is also very popular in the industry – 24 of the top 25 Fortune 500 financial companies use it. The app supports Android 12L, which is optimized for larger screens and multitasking. Professionals can drag and drop a document from the email client into DocuSign, sign with the S Pen, and drag it back to email. There’s even a PC-like experience available in DeX mode.
Samsung partnered with IBM iX, an experience design partner within IBM Consulting. The team worked with a leading financial institution to perfect the mobile experience and allow app users to view and interact with data in DeX mode or by using the S Pen.
Foldable smartphones are also gaining traction with ordinary users. According to Samsung, worldwide shipments of foldable devices will reach a total of 16 million this year (a 73% increase over 2021), and the forecast for next year is 26 million.
