“Reheating Our Leftovers”: Samsung Mocks Apple After Its First Foldable iPhone Finally Arrives
Apple’s long-awaited entry into foldable smartphones has given Samsung an opportunity it was never likely to ignore.
Soon after Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable smartphone, Samsung turned the launch into a social media offensive against its biggest rival, portraying Apple’s newest device as an idea the Korean company had already been serving customers for years.
“Let us know when you’re done reheating our leftovers,” Samsung Mobile US posted during Apple’s launch event, one of several sarcastic messages aimed at the new iPhone.
The message was clear: Apple may be presenting foldability as a major new chapter for the iPhone, but Samsung believes it arrived years late to the party.
Seven years gives Samsung plenty of ammunition
Samsung has a particularly strong position from which to make that argument.
The company introduced the original Galaxy Fold in 2019 and has since gone through multiple generations of foldable devices, culminating in the Galaxy Z Fold8, while also experimenting with more ambitious form factors including devices that fold three ways.
That history became part of Samsung’s real-time commentary as Apple prepared to reveal its foldable.
“Making us wait? Fine. We’ll be over here, folding 3 ways,” Samsung wrote, referring to its own progress beyond conventional book-style foldables.
When the iPhone Duo finally appeared, Samsung continued with “So far, so same,” while another post joked that the device looked strangely familiar.
The company also took aim at Apple’s accessories, joking that the presentation felt like “condiments and no food,” turning what would normally be one of the biggest technology launches of the year into material for a rival advertising campaign.
Apple finally enters Samsung’s territory
Behind the jokes is a much more serious competitive shift.
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, putting Apple directly into a premium foldable category that Samsung helped establish but that has remained relatively small compared with the conventional smartphone market.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 starts at $1,899 in the US, meaning Apple is not attempting to enter the category by undercutting its established rival. Instead, it is betting that the strength of the iPhone ecosystem and years spent refining its first foldable can justify a premium price.
Samsung, meanwhile, is betting on experience.
After eight generations of Galaxy Z Fold devices, it can argue that many of the challenges Apple is now addressing — hinges, multitasking, flexible displays and adapting software between external and internal screens — are problems Samsung has spent years trying to solve.
Samsung may be laughing, but Apple changes the foldable market
The irony is that Apple’s arrival could ultimately benefit Samsung.
Foldable smartphones remain a small part of global smartphone shipments, despite years of investment by Samsung and Chinese manufacturers. Apple entering the category gives the form factor something it has struggled to achieve on its own: exposure to hundreds of millions of iPhone users.
Analysts expect Apple to quickly capture a significant share of foldable smartphone sales, potentially turning what has remained a niche premium category into a much bigger battleground.
Samsung therefore has two reasons to mock Apple.
The first is obvious: after years of being criticized for the compromises of early foldable phones, it can now watch Apple embrace the same basic concept.
The second is more complicated. Apple has finally entered a market Samsung spent years building — and history suggests that when Apple enters an established technology category late, being first does not necessarily guarantee remaining first.
For now, however, Samsung is enjoying its head start.
Its message to Apple can be reduced to one particularly sharp line: welcome to foldables — dinner was served years ago.
Sources: Reuters; MacRumors; 9to5Google; Android Central.