Samsung has officially lost its crown in the foldable market

Ben Schoon | May 30 2024 - 10:13 am PT

Foldables are still a new concept, but they’ve been getting much better over the few years they’ve been on the market. Samsung has been the leader in foldables since the beginning, but the company has now officially lost its crown as competition heats up and Galaxy foldables stagnate.

For years, Samsung was a dominant player in the foldable market. That’s largely because Galaxy foldables existed alone, as other brands were quite a bit behind with the new tech. As of Q1 2023, Samsung had captured just shy of 60% of the global foldable market, with its next-closest competitor being Huawei at a mere 14%.

Now, things have changed drastically.

A new report from Counterpoint Research reveals that Samsung has shrunk to just 23% of the global foldable market, with Huawei as the new market leader with 35% of total shipments. That’s also as the foldable market as a whole grew by just shy of 50%.

Top comment by jason gamble

Liked by 10 people

I started with the z fold 3 and traded that in for the z fold 4 when it had a known issue with 5g data and Samsung couldn't fix it so they just gave me extra on my trade in. I didn't notice much difference between the 3 and 4 other than better cameras. My issue is everything is proprietary on the fold phones. My inside screen protector started coming off and it says on Samsungs website after the first year it's $20 and that is false advertising. It's only $20 if you are still in warranty and used your free replacement. Otherwise I can have a Samsung shop replace it for $80 or send it to Samsung and have it replaced for $100. They will not sell me the screen protector to do it myself so I ripped it off. Now 2 months later the phone only opens about 75% of the way, another known issue, and Samsung wants over $200 to fix it. No thanks Samsung I've been with you since the note 2 until the discontinued the note series but I'm done.

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The other two big players are Motorola at 11% and Honor at 12%. Both brands experienced massive growth over the course of 2023, likely thanks to devices such as the Razr+ and Magic V2, both of which were compelling foldables in their own respects.

This all comes as last year’s Galaxy foldable portfolio, the Fold 5 and Flip 5, were rather minor upgrades compared to their predecessors. Aside from the Flip 5’s much larger cover display, Samsung didn’t change much as regards the physical hardware or even the software on its foldable devices. And, all the while, competitors such as Motorola, Honor, Google, and Oppo/OnePlus were stepping up with different hardware, software, and camera improvements that Samsung wasn’t offering.

It’s also interesting that book-style foldables such as 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, where clamshells like the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Motorola Razr+ made up the remaining portion.