Las Vegas, Jan 8 (IANS): Samsung Electronics sold around 4 lakh Galaxy Fold smartphones last year, the company's mobile business chief said and denied earlier media reports that it sold one million foldable handsets.

"We've sold 400,000-500,000 Galaxy Fold smartphones," Koh Dong-jin, President and CEO of Samsung's IT and Mobile Communication division, said at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 here.

Koh's comment confirms Samsung's earlier stand refuting media reports that it sold 1 million Galaxy Folds in 2019, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.

In December, Sohn Young-kwon, a Samsung executive who leads Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center, said the company sold 1 million Galaxy Folds. But the company denied the figure, saying Sohn might have got confused the number with the company's initial sales target for 2019.

The Galaxy Fold, which has a 7.3-inch screen that users can fold horizontally like a book, officially went on sale in September at $2,000. Analysts predicted that Samsung would sell about 400,000-500,000 foldable phones.

Meanwhile, Koh said he would introduce Samsung's new "clamshell" foldable smartphone during CES 2020 that runs through Friday.

On the opening day of the world's largest tech expo, Koh was spotted explaining Samsung products to chiefs of South Korean mobile carriers -- SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho and LG Uplus CEO Ha Hyun-hwoi.

Samsung's new foldable smartphone, expected to boast a 6.7-inch display and can become nearly square when folded, is scheduled to be unveiled next month.