Huawei becomes the biggest fold-type foldable smartphone brand in 2Q23

With the launch of its new foldable product in April, the Mate X3, Huawei surpassed Samsung to become the biggest brand in the fold-type foldable smartphone market with a 32.9% market share in the second quarter of 2023.

Foldable smartphone shipments rebounded from 1Q23 by 8.7%. Furthermore, compared with 2Q22, total shipments also grew by 18.5%. This is because Chinese companies have increased production volumes of their foldable smartphone products. Samsung’s share in the foldable smartphone market continues to decrease owing to it ceasing production of its current line of foldable products before it launches new products in 3Q23. However, although Samsung’s share in the foldable smartphone market has declined to 26.7%, it is still the biggest foldable smartphone player globally, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Smartphone brands’ market shares in the foldable smartphone market, 1Q20–2Q23

Meanwhile, shares of Chinese brands in the foldable smartphone market have grown to more than 70% because of constant upgrades as well as increased production plans. Huawei is the biggest manufacturer among the Chinese brands and is also the second-largest brand globally with over 22% market share. OPPO ranks third globally with a 16.7% market share, while vivo is fourth with a 14.3% market share.

In April 2023, Huawei launched its Mate X3 foldable smartphone in China. The Mate X3 is Huawei’s fifth-generation foldable smartphone since it released the Huawei Mate X in 2019. As a premium brand in the local market, Huawei leads the foldable smartphone market among Chinese brands. In 2Q23, Huawei shipped approximately 409,000 foldable smartphones with the Mate X3 recording approximately 309,000 shipments - accounting for 76% of Huawei’s foldable smartphone shipments. Looking at shipments of foldable smartphones by different types, Huawei’s fold-type smartphones recorded approximately 361,000 shipments, accounting for 88.3% of its total foldable smartphone shipments. On the other hand, with Huawei’s foldable Pocket series ceasing production, shipments of its flip-type foldable smartphones are very few. Owing to the successful launch of the Mate X3, Huawei had a 39.8% share in the fold-type foldable smartphone market in 2Q23, becoming the first brand to surpass Samsung in this product segment, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Smartphone brands’ market share of fold-type smartphones, 2Q23

A key factor contributing to this is the differing release cycles of new products. Samsung usually releases its new foldable smartphone series at the end of July; compared with previous quarters, shipments are usually the smallest in the quarter before a new product launch. In 2Q23, Samsung shipped approximately 151,000 fold-type foldable smartphones, accounting for 17% of the market. However, looking at total foldable smartphone shipments, Samsung is still the biggest brand, shipping approximately 477,000 units. Samsung’s flip-type products were the main contributor to its dominance, contributing around 326,000 shipments and accounting for 68% of its total foldable smartphone shipments. Additionally, Samsung still leads in flip-type smartphone shipments with a 35% market share. With the launch of its Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 in July, Samsung will likely regain its market-leading position in the foldable smartphone market in the 2H23.