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China’s foldable smartphone shipments more than double in 2023, as Huawei continues to lead the growing handset segment
- Mainland shipments of foldable smartphones reached 7.01 million units last year, up 114 per cent from 3.2 million in 2022, according to IDC
- That marked the fourth straight year of triple-digit annual growth for this segment since the first such models were launched on the mainland in 2019
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Iris Dengin Shenzhen
Foldable phone shipments in mainland China more than doubled last year in spite of overall weakness in the world’s largest smartphone market, with Huawei Technologies remaining the country’s top vendor in this growing handset segment.
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Mainland shipments of foldable smartphones reached 7.01 million units last year, up 114 per cent from 3.2 million in 2022, according to a report on Tuesday by tech market research firm IDC.
That marked the fourth consecutive year of triple-digit annual growth for this segment – including clamshell-type handsets that flip open vertically and those designed like a booklet that expand horizontally into tablet form – since the first such models were introduced on the mainland in 2019, IDC data showed.
Shenzhen-based Huawei led the segment with a 37.4 per cent market share, driven by demand for its popular Mate X5 model launched in September. Major rivals Oppo and Honor, formerly Huawei’s budget smartphone brand, had an 18.3 per cent and 17.7 per cent share, respectively.
Samsung Electronics, which accounted for more than half of global foldable phone shipments last year, ranked fourth on the mainland with an 11 per cent share, according to the IDC report.
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The segment’s growth was driven by both hardware and software improvements in various foldable phone models, along with lower prices that helped encourage more consumers to buy these handsets, according to the report.
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