Samsung revamps foldable branding amid rising memory costs

LONDON — Samsung Electronics has reorganized its foldable smartphone lineup, assigning its highest “Ultra” branding to the traditional bar-type foldable form factor while giving the newly introduced wider model the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 name without any additional modifier. Samsung said the branding reflects its strategy of applying the "Ultra" designation to its highest-specification model and offering foldable devices tailored to different user needs. However, it is also seen as part of Samsung's pricing strategy to cope with soaring memory costs by securing greater flexibility to sustain premium pricing.

The company said the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at 2.58 million won ($1,740) for the 256-gigabyte (GB) model, rising to 2.83 million won for the 512 GB version and 3.

45 million won for the 1-terabyte model. The prices represent increases of 8.3 percent, 11.

5 percent and 17.7 percent, respectively, from the launch prices of corresponding Fold 7 models. After memory prices began rising sharply this year, Samsung raised prices for higher-storage Fold 7 models in April, and th