Huawei Captures More Than Half of China’s Foldable Smartphone Market, with Honor in Second Place

According to a report by analytics firm Counterpoint, foldable smartphone sales in China are expected to increase by 27% in 2024 compared to the previous year. Despite the slowdown, the Chinese market remains the world’s largest and most competitive for foldable devices, with Huawei remaining the leader.

Huawei has solidified its dominance in China’s foldable smartphone market, accounting for half of all sales in the segment in 2024. Huawei’s success is due to its strong brand and a wide range of foldable devices, including both book-style and clamshell models. Huawei’s most popular models, according to GSMArena, are the Mate X5 and X6 among book-style phones, and the Pocket 2 and Nova Flip among clamshell phones.

The only other manufacturer with a market share of over 10% was Honor, which enjoyed success with the Magic Vs 2 and Magic Vs 3, which boasted a thin and light design. Other Chinese brands and Samsung each had less than 10% of the market.

The top five best-selling foldable smartphone models in 2024 accounted for more than 50% of all sales in China. The list included two models from Huawei, two from Honor, and one from Vivo. However, only two devices from the top 5 — Huawei Pocket 2 and Honor V Flip — were made in the clamshell form factor, while the rest were book-style devices.

Image source: Counterpoint

It is noted that book-style smartphones hold 67% of the Chinese foldable device market, while clamshell models account for 23%. That is, the Counterpoint study showed that Chinese users more often choose book-style smartphones, one of the factors in the growth of popularity of which was reliability and convenience (compared to the first generations of devices in this form factor).

Plus, modern foldables are getting thinner, lighter, and have longer-lasting batteries and better cameras. Oppo, for example, this week unveiled the Find N5, which is the thinnest foldable smartphone on the market at just 8.93mm thick when folded.

Although foldable devices remain a niche segment, accounting for about 3% of the Chinese smartphone market, their popularity continues to grow. According to analysts, further technological developments, better integration of software and hardware, and the emergence of new use cases will likely help foldable smartphones gain ground.