Samsung Electronics plans to release the world's first foldable smartphone Galaxy Fold in Japan later this month, hoping to narrow the market share gap with its bigger rival Apple in the Japanese smartphone market, industry officials said Friday.

Axar.az reports citing Korea Times that Samsung Electronics Japan is currently receiving preorders for the Galaxy Fold, stating that the new smartphone will get an official release on Oct. 25.

While the Korean tech giant has led the global smartphone market, it has had relatively poor success in Japan where Apple has shown its dominance with over half of the market share.