Samsung Electronics's Galaxy Z Flip / Korea Times file

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday its foldable phone sales to enterprise customers more than doubled over the past year, thanks in part to increased adoption by finance professionals.

The number of Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip the company contracted to enterprise customers went up by 105 percent during the first 10 months of this year, compared with the same period last year, the tech giant said.

Samsung attributed the rise in adoption to "ease of multitasking on a large screen, and the powerful app optimizations for foldable devices."

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 offers a larger screen, "well suited to make the most of features from desktop computers," the world's largest smartphone maker said in a statement, with the PC-like Taskbar and multi Windows that opens three apps at the same time.

To make the device more efficient and appealing to financial enterprise users, Samsung said it worked with IBM to further develop more user-friendly experience and help wealth advisers more easily access and manage financial data.

In the July-September period, Samsung shipped 64 million smartphones globally, up 5 percent from the previous quarter, on the back of robust foldable phone sales, according to market research firm Counterpoint.

But the figure declined by 8 percent from the same period of last year, as Samsung, like many other consumer devices companies, has been facing headwinds from global economic woes that have left consumers with less money to spend on nonessential goods.

The global smartphone market declined 12 percent year-over-year in the third quarter as consumers' disposable income has been cut by spiking inflation.

Samsung aims to raise the portion of foldable phones, which were first introduced in 2019, to half of its total smartphone sales by 2025 and make them another pillar of the company alongside the Galaxy S flagship series and a key category in the premium segment.

Samsung expected foldable smartphone shipments to top 26 million units globally next year, from an estimated 16 million units this year.

The company has said it was working on other form factors, like a smartphone with a rollable screen. (Yonhap)