Global foldable smartphone market continues growth in Q1 2023—China is the cultprit, report says

The global foldable smartphones market is showing promising growth, with certain brands rapidly growing in China.

File photo: HUAWEI Mate X3 and OPPO Find N2 Flip

Growing market in China

According to the Counterpoint Research foldable tracker and the foldable insight report, the global foldable smartphone market grew 64 percent in Q1 2023, with a sell-in volume reaching 2.5 million units.

The report noted that the growth is significant as there was a 14.2 percent decline in the overall global smartphone market in the same period.

Almost all regions, including China, North America, and Western Europe, showed strong growth in the first quarter, the report added.

It noted that the growth was largely due to the growth in the Chinese market. Although the Chinese smartphone market declined by about 8 percent in Q1, the domestic market continued to grow, even recording a surge of 117 percent to 1.08 million units.

In China, new foldable products such as the OPPO N2 and N2 Flip had grand releases. These big launch events constantly pique the market’s interest. Consequently, Chinese consumers have become more familiar with foldable products compared to other regions, research analyst Woojin Son said.

Counterpoint Research said OPPO's strong performance in Q1 is noteworthy as it "reflects the brand's success in the Chinese foldable market, which is emerging as the world’s largest foldable smartphone market."

Courtesy: Counterpoint Research

OPPO ranked second in the foldable market in Beijing, with a slight gap with leader HUAWEI, helped by the N2 Flip and N2 which were released at the end of 2022. The N2 Flip, OPPO’s clamshell-type foldable, contributed a lot to the increase in the sales of clamshell-type products in China, beating HUAWEI's Pocket S, it noted.

Samsung also showed remarkable growth in the Chinese foldable smartphone market. The South Korean manufacturer made efforts to target the Chinese market by launching the W23 and W23 Flip, which are variants of the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, respectively, produced mainly for the Chinese market and MEA market. This helped the brand grow rapidly in the Chinese foldable market in the first quarter, the report said.

According to senior analyst Jene Park, there seems to be an exciting 2023 for the foldable smartphone market.

We believe that, in 2023, there will be 1) intensifying competition among OEMs in the global foldable market due to more aggressive target market expansion; 2) intensifying price competition; and 3) increasing sales volume of clamshell-type foldable smartphones through various product launches, Park said.

Also, the Chinese foldable market is expected to continue to grow through 2023 mainly due to the Chinese consumers’ recognition of 'foldables' as a premium smartphone, coupled with continuous and frequent new product launches in the country, the expert added.

As for Apple's entry into the foldable market, Park said, "Apple is still absent from our short-term forecasts. However, since overall consumer response to foldable phones is improving and Apple will be possibly releasing non-phone foldable products soon, the brand's participation in the foldable smartphone market is likely to occur after 2025."

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Source: Counterpoint