What is the position of foldable smartphones in the smartphone market?
According to market research firm IDC, foldable smartphones (smartphones) will account for only about 2% of the global smartphone market in 2024. The IDC added that Samsung is the largest company with a market share of 34%, followed by Huawei with less than 24%. Honor ranked fourth with nearly 11% market share. In addition, a series of other companies have also invested heavily in this segment such as Google, Xiaomi, Samsung, etc.
Folding smartphones are increasingly popular, especially in the Chinese market. According to Counterpoint Research, sales in this category increased by 27% last year in this country. The phone can fold into a book, opening along a longer edge to create a larger, especially popular screen.
That is the reason why many big companies are still investing heavily in foldable smartphones. Recently, Honor has launched a new Honor Magic V5 model. It is only 8.8 mm thick when folded and about 4.1 - 4.2 mm thin when unfolded, depending on the color version. This smartphone is 0.1mm thinner than the Oppo Find N5 - the previous smartphone that held the thinnest position in the world, launched a few months ago.
The weight is also optimized, with the white version being only 217g, the lightest in the product line. And the black, yellow, red and brown versions weigh about 222g. With this weight, Honor Magic V5 has taken the throne of "the thinnest and lightest foldable smartphone in the world".
According to insiders, Honor has invested more than $139 million in research on silicon-carbon battery technology. The company spends more than 10% of total revenue on R&D (R&D) each year.
The fierce race between brands
According to experts, the thinness of the foldable phone is the main point for manufacturers to attract users' attention, needing a large screen but not too heavy.
Samsung attracted great attention when launching its first foldable smartphone in 2019. Currently, they are still dominating the top market share in this segment. However, they are facing fierce competition from Chinese opponents. Honor, Oppo and other Chinese phone companies have used thin designs to make a difference with Samsung.
Samsung will launch its new foldable smartphones on July 9. Many people are very curious about how the Korean company will look. If it can challenge Honor Magic V5 or Oppo Find N5 in terms of thinness, Samsung will have an advantage in the race in this segment, because their mark in the world is greater.
Neil Shah - co-founder of Counterpoint Research - said that the biggest challenge for Honor is brand value and distribution range compared to Samsung, where the Korean phone maker has an advantage.
In general, the race in the foldable smartphone segment is taking place fiercely. And it is also impossible to ignore Apple, as the iPhone manufacturer is also planning to launch a book-style foldable smartphone in 2026.
