https://www.forbes.com/video/e2fb7658-d57e-4a46-aecd-36033a133db4/
Samsung is clearly enjoying the opportunity Apple’s iPhone Duo screen-crack troubles have given it. Not just in PR wins, but also concrete sales.
Since the iPhone Duo launched, owners have reported cracks on its inner display. Apple acknowledged in October that “a small number” of units were affected, and on this week’s earnings call CEO John Ternus said only a “very small percentage” had been returned with display problems.
Apple is replacing affected phones according to some users, but it still hasn’t said how many units are affected or what’s causing the cracks.
If the issue continues (and one repair expert I spoke with thinks it will) then how long the company continues to offer free replacements will be interesting because the cost of fixing that crack could be two-thirds of the price of the phone itself. Check out my video on that here.
Samsung is relishing the iPhone Duo’s problems and hoping its Galaxy Z Fold 8 can capitalise. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Samsung, of course, hasn’t been silent at all. Its regional accounts have spent the last weeks poking fun at Apple. Samsung Canada’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 ad reminds viewers that “folding is nothing new to us” before signing off with “Switch to Galaxy Z Fold8.” Samsung Malaysia joked about “all this talk about durability,” while Samsung Saudi Arabia showed a Duo-style crack on a Fold 8 screen, only to reveal it was just the wallpaper.
Samsung taking marketing shots at Apple has been a thing for over a decade. But in the background there’s a clear effort to capitalise on Apple’s woes.
A day after Ternus spoke, Samsung’s PR team sent me a set of “comparison points” for reviewers. It never names Apple, but it doesn’t need to. It talks about “recent discussion around foldable durability,” eight generations of foldable development and more than 100 reliability tests.
iPhone Duo: Samsung Has Every Reason To Gloat
The timing couldn’t be better for Samsung. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple originally planned to launch the iPhone Duo in November in just the U.S. and China, but instead rushed it out in more than 70 countries in October without enough stock. Average waits are now close to three months.
Meanwhile, Samsung says combined Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra sales in Europe were up 45% on the Fold 7 over the first nine weeks. With sales spiking by 20% in Korea after the iPhone Duo launched, according to The Korea Herald. A combination of recent discount codes and the difficulty in actually buying an iPhone Duo likely helped.
It’s worth pointing out that Samsung Display actually makes the iPhone Duo’s foldable panel. So you’d imagine a screen-crack issue is a bad look for the company.
But Apple has stressed that the hinge and the structure under the screen are its own work, and repair expert Ricky Panesar told me he believes the cracks are a mechanical problem, not a panel one. Stay tuned for a deeper dive into the mechanics of the problem soon.
Samsung has also been here. The original Galaxy Fold’s screens failed on reviewers in 2019, delaying its launch by months. “Eight generations” of learning is another way of saying it got the first one wrong too. And hinge or screen issues were only part of the problem with those early Fold phones, they were also janky to use because the software experience simply wasn’t refined. Apple has, at least, released a mostly polished product at the first try.
If, however, there is a mechanical issue with the iPhone Duo, it’ll likely be fixed for the Duo 2. Until then, Samsung will continue to relish Apple’s woes.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com