This year marked the debut of the world's first tri-folding phone, the Huawei Mate XT, although it remained exclusive to China. Samsung, known for its annual Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip releases, introduced the Galaxy Z Fold6 Special Edition in South Korea alongside the Samsung W25 and W25 Flip models in China.
Google also released the Pixel 9 Pro Fold earlier this year. But despite some extra launches, the global foldable smartphone shipments saw the market's first-ever Q3 decline. According to a report by Counterpoint Research, global smartphone shipment fell by 1% year-over-year (YoY) in Q3 2024, breaking a streak of six consecutive quarters of YoY growth.
Samsung remained at the top spot with a 56% global foldable smartphone market share (down from 70% in the same period last year), with a significant 21% YoY decline in shipments. Analysts attribute this decline to the poor performance of the Galaxy Z Fold6 and the Z Flip6, which failed to match its predecessor's sales.
Researchers at Counterpoint noted that "as the foldables supply chain matures, Samsung is increasingly facing strong competition from in North America from Moto with its full range of sub-$1000 Razr flip foldables, and in Western Europe from Honor with its attractive and thin Magic V series book-type foldables."
Chinese smartphone giant Huawei was in the second spot with a 15% market share, although it experienced a 2% dip YoY. HONOR doubled its share from 5% to 10% during the same period. Motorola and Xiaomi saw a jump of 7% and 6%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
Based on the report, Samsung's crown as the market leader in the foldables smartphone category seems to be in danger, thanks to the growing demand and contribution from its Chinese counterparts.
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