what you should Know
- Huawei was the leader in global shipments of foldable phones for the first time in the first quarter of 2024.
- The company overtook Samsung, which was the previous leader in shipments, amid concerns that Samsung was becoming complacent with its Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip brands.
- Honor and Motorola have found success outside of China, signaling that North American brands are struggling to attract buyers.
According to recent reports from analyst firms Counterpoint Research and IDC, the smartphone industry appears to have fully recovered from a period of decline. The overall market is expected to grow four percent year-on-year, and foldable phones in particular are seeing a broad increase in shipments. The interesting part of the data, which is based on Q1 2024 shipment results, is that the largest folding players in North America are not the ones growing.
If you’ve been following the US foldable phone market, this probably isn’t all that surprising. Samsung was the only major manufacturer to offer foldable phones in North America for years, and that only recently changed with the arrival of Google and OnePlus last year. To call the sector competitive may not be entirely true. OnePlus reportedly has no plans to release a successor to the OnePlus Open anytime soon, and the Google Pixel Fold is still a flawed device. Then you have Samsung, a company that seems to be resting on its laurels with the Z Fold and Z Flip brands.
Given this context, it makes sense that other brands are ahead of Samsung in terms of foldable device shipments and growth. For the first time, Huawei is the leader, which may come as a shock to consumers in North America. Foreign brands are not only winning in China. Companies like Honor and Motorola are finding success in other regions. All of this will put a lot of pressure on brands operating in the North American market to improve, particularly Samsung with the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 series.
What the numbers say
Figures for Q1 2023 and Q1 2024 folding shipments provided by Counterpoint paint two completely different pictures. Last year, Samsung dominated the first quarter, accounting for 58% of all foldable phone shipments worldwide. This is important to remember, as Samsung’s decline in Q1 2024 cannot be attributed to the Z Fold and Z Flip release cycles. While Samsung is likely to find success after the launch of the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, the company fared much better under the same conditions last year.
Fast forward to the first quarter of this year and the situation is completely reversed. Samsung’s foldable phone shipments are down 42% year-over-year, and the company only accounts for 23% of global shipments in the first quarter of 2024. In comparison, Huawei’s shipments grew a whopping 257% year-over-year, allowing the company to claim a spot with a 35% share of global supplies.
In addition to the movement among manufacturers, the type of flip phones being purchased is also changing. In the first quarter of 2024, book-style foldable phones accounted for 55% of all foldable phones shipped. This is the first time since 2021 that book-style foldables have outsold clamshells. Taken together, all the data points to consumers around the world buying foldable devices other than those sold in North America.
Honor and Motorola are winning outside China
Huawei is an interesting case because while we can’t discredit the company’s success, it’s impossible to talk about it without considering government sanctions. Tensions between the US and China have made it difficult or impossible to buy and use Huawei devices outside of China. In some ways, it’s more impressive that Huawei is succeeding despite trade restrictions. In this context, however, Huawei is not really competing with North American brands.
Honor and Motorola, on the other hand, are finding success outside of China. Both companies saw expansive growth between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024. Motorola’s foldable phone shipments grew a staggering 1,473% year-over-year, driven by last year’s Razr Plus and Razr 2023 devices. Honor’s shipments were up 460% year-over-year, which still an extremely impressive figure. According to Counterpoint, Honor’s Magic V2 foldable is the best-selling foldable phone in Western Europe in Q1 2024.
Samsung’s Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 are natural competitors to the Honor Magic V2 and Motorola Razr respectively. The fact that users are turning to Honor and Motorola phones instead just shows how Samsung is falling behind.
That’s not surprising given the state of foldables in North America
Samsung was the first to really make foldable phones mainstream and has been the leader in the foldable phone market since the beginning. However, it’s clear that Samsung’s foldable devices no longer offer the most advanced technology. The last time we really saw an upgrade from a Z Fold device was with the Z Fold 3, as the Z Fold 4 and Z Fold 5 were iterative improvements. Other phones have completely caught up, with the Honor Magic V2 offering an almost slab-thin form factor.
There is no better example of this than the OnePlus Open, which entered the US market as a basic copy of the OPPO Find N3. The OnePlus Open is considered the best foldable phone in the US, and that’s thanks to OPPO’s technology. If Samsung — the South Korean electronics giant that dominates the North American foldable device market — wants to return to the top, it will need to make future foldables competitive with those from Chinese brands.
