In the first quarter of 2024, China’s sales of large foldable phones increased by 91%: Huawei led the way with three major reasons to attract users to buy

China’s sales of foldable phones in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 48% year-on-year, continuing its strong growth momentum. During the same period, the overall smartphone market only grew by 2%.

The report said that shipments of large flip-folding models increased by 91% year-on-year, while shipments of small vertical folding models decreased by 1% year-on-year.

First, since large foldable models have more usage scenarios , consumers began to favor this form, resulting in a significant increase in their shipments.

The large screen after the big fold is unfolded brings better multi-tasking capabilities, and users can run multiple applications at the same time and switch efficiently.

The unfolded form is close to a tablet, which is very suitable for work tasks (such as editing documents and managing emails). It is also suitable for entertainment activities (such as watching videos and playing games).

Secondly, after several generations of updates, the large folding models have become thinner and lighter, and their thickness and weight are close to those of straight-screen phones, making them more attractive.

Third, the price of large foldable phones is gradually becoming more cost-effective. For example, Honor’s Magic Vs2 starts at RMB 6,999, which is comparable to the flagship straight-screen phones.

The report also pointed out that Huawei is an important player in China’s foldable screen mobile phone market and one of the earliest manufacturers to launch foldable screen products. In the first quarter of 2024, Huawei led the sales of flip-folding and vertical folding models, marking its strong return.

Huawei’s market share growth is mainly due to the first launch of 5G-enabled foldable screen phones, such as the small foldable Huawei Pocket 2 and the large foldable Huawei Mate X5, which were hot-selling as soon as they were launched. Both foldable screen phones are equipped with Huawei’s latest Kirin SoC chip that supports 5G.

Counterpoint Research expects foldable phones to be a highlight of the Chinese smartphone market and continue to maintain strong growth momentum.