Samsung has incorporated an India-only payment reminder feature into its latest foldable smartphones, highlighting the country’s growing importance as a development hub with expanding demand beyond major cities.
Samsung has folded an India-built payment reminder tool into its latest flagship foldables, underscoring how the company is using its local engineering teams not only to adapt products for the market but to build features intended specifically for it. In a statement carried by PTI, Samsung said the Pay Now function sits inside the Now Brief experience on the new devices and will be available only to Indian users. It alerts customers to upcoming bill payments and directs them into Samsung Wallet to complete them.
The feature arrives alongside Samsung’s eighth-generation foldables, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Flip8, which are now on pre-order in India. The Indian Express reported that the phones bring slimmer designs, upgraded displays, Galaxy AI functions and improved durability, while LiveMint said the line-up is Samsung’s most expensive yet, with the Fold8 Ultra starting at ₹2 lakh. Telangana Today said the Fold8 Ultra and Fold8 start at ₹1.79 lakh, while the Flip8 starts at ₹1.24 lakh. The differing price reports suggest Samsung may be using variant-specific or media-reported pricing, but all accounts point to a premium launch.
Samsung said the new foldables have drawn more than 2.71 lakh pre-orders within 72 hours of their July 22 launch in India, beating last year’s pace for the Fold7 and Flip7. The company also said 45% of orders came from tier-2 cities and beyond, indicating that demand is broadening outside India’s largest urban centres. That matters because Samsung has repeatedly framed India as a development hub, not just a sales market.
JB Park, Samsung Southwest Asia president and chief executive, said in the company’s statement that Indian consumers show stronger AI adoption than the global average and that the company wants more original technology to come out of India. Samsung also pointed to partnerships with the IITs and several startups. Separately, Samsung India has been expanding Wallet with tools such as UPI onboarding during device setup, biometric authentication without a PIN and broader Tap & Pay support, showing that Pay Now is part of a wider push to make the wallet a central payment layer on Galaxy phones.
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