According to Counterpoint Research’s latest report, Huawei has had a 23% year-over-year growth in the global shipments of foldable phones in Q3 2024. It comes as the company has finally announced the Mate 70 series, which the Chinese tech company has been in anticipation of releasing as one of its flagship products for a long time.
According to the report, foldable phones worldwide in the third quarter of 2024 saw a 1% decrease, but Huawei shone through with growth showing good signs. It’s quite an important positive trend if one considers the fact that Samsung, among the key market players, also suffers from such troubles. Samsung’s new Galaxy Z6 series did not prevent the wider market contraction, which impacted several companies’ performances. However, shipments of foldables from Huawei increased, capturing 15% of the share in the global foldable market, an increase of 2 percentage points compared to the same period in 2023.
Huawei says strong performance is due to popular foldable devices, specifically its Mate X5 and Pocket 2, that had seen huge demand in the Chinese market. Foldable devices have been significant enablers for Huawei to gain a foothold in the foldable segment. Recently, the Nova Flip was also attracting attention, focusing on affordability and AI capabilities and further adding to sales from foldable devices.
One of the major innovations from Huawei is Mate XT—the world’s first tri-fold handset. There have been much speculation about the possibility of its global launch. It will be one of the company’s key drivers to sustain growth in the foldable market.
Also, with the launch of Huawei Mate X6 foldable that flaunts cutting-edge technology and power hardware, the company would further fuel its growth into Q4 2024.
Samsung still leads the market and has maintained its topmost position in the global foldable market, even though foldable shipments have dropped to 21%. Huawei places second, followed by Honor and Motorola in the remainder of the top four.
Honor saw a remarkable 121% YoY increase in sales, and Motorola reported a 164% increase. Notably, Xiaomi achieved the highest YoY shipment growth of 185%, largely driven by the introduction of its MIX Flip, a flip-foldable device.
Overall, Huawei’s 23% growth in the foldable segment underscores its competitive edge and continued innovation in the evolving global smartphone market.
