Samsung has officially lost its crown in the foldable market

Foldables are still a new concept, but they have improved a lot in the few years they have been on the market. Samsung has been a leader in foldable devices since the beginning, but the company hasn’t officially lost its crown as competition heats up and foldable Galaxy devices stagnate.

For many years, Samsung has been the dominant player in the foldable market. This is largely because foldable Galaxy devices have been out there on their own, as other brands have been a little behind with the new technology. As of Q1 2023, Samsung holds nearly 60% of the global foldable market, with its closest competitor Huawei at just 14%.

Now things have changed radically.

a New report from Counterpoint Research It reveals that Samsung has shrunk to just 23% of the global foldable market, with Huawei taking a new market leadership position with 35% of total shipments. This also coincides with the foldable market as a whole growing by less than 50%.

The other two big players are Motorola with 11% and Honor with 12%. Both brands saw massive growth over the course of 2023, likely due to devices like the Razr+ and Magic V2, both of which were compelling foldables on their respective sides.

This all comes as last year’s Galaxy foldable wallets, the Fold 5 and Flip 5, were fairly minor upgrades over their predecessors. Aside from the Flip 5’s larger cover display, Samsung hasn’t changed much in terms of the physical hardware or even software on its foldable devices. Meanwhile, competitors like Motorola, Honor, Google, and Oppo/OnePlus were coming forward with various improvements to hardware, software, and cameras that Samsung wasn’t offering.

It’s also interesting that book-style foldable devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Pixel Fold, and OnePlus Open are now the most popular form factor. 55% of devices shipped in Q1 2024 were book-style devices, with clamshell devices like the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Motorola Razr+ making up the remainder.

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