Huawei is the new king of foldable sales, dethroning Samsung

Huawei sold the most foldable smartphones in the first quarter of this year (from January to March), according to a new report released by Counterpoint Research. This is a pretty shocking revelation considering how insignificant Huawei's sales have been in most parts of the world for the past few years, ever since the US government decided to cut its access to Google services.

Most people we assume think about Samsung when asked about foldables, but despite that, the Korean company only managed to hit the No.2 spot in the same period of time. What's more, Samsung's sales of foldables dropped by a whopping 42% compared to Q1 2023.

Huawei's 257% growth is obviously due in the most part to sales in China, which surged for the company after the introduction of the Mate X5 last year. The long overdue jump to 5G connectivity seems to have played a significant part in attracting Chinese consumers' interest in Huawei's foldables.

Honor was No.3 in shipments with 460% growth, but the most impressive growth came from Motorola, which managed to sell 1,473% more foldables in Q1 of this year compared to Q1 of 2023. Overall, foldable device sales grew 49% year-on-year. Honor and Motorola's growth primarily came from outside China, in contrast to Huawei.

Honor's market share is now 12% in the foldable space, up from 3% a year ago. The Honor Magic V2 became the most shipped foldable phone in Western Europe in Q1 2024. Motorola's global market share in foldables is now 11% thanks to strong performance from the Razr series in North America.

In Q1 2024, "book-type" foldables accounted for 55% of global shipments, surpassing clamshell type foldables for the first time since 2021. That said, things may flip (pun intended) back later this year once Samsung releases the Galaxy Z Flip6. Huawei is allegedly planning to launch a cheaper clamshell style foldable too, while Xiaomi and Honor will release their first flips.

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