Counterpoint Research: Global foldable phone shipments shrink, attributes it to Samsung
Rival brands saw huge increases in foldable phone shipments, but the overall market shrunk by 1%. The report pins the blame on one device. (guess which one?) #foldable #phone #android
Counterpoint Research is not very shy about calling out the foldable phone that did not make the cut. Photo: HWZ.
The global foldable phone industry saw its first-ever Q3 decline since its inception, despite many brands making substantial headway into the market.
Counterpoint Research notes that Samsung is the who, and the Galaxy Z Flip6 is the why.
Unfolding the foldable phone’s fold
In the latest Q3 2024 foldable phone shipment report, Counterpoint Research, a market intelligence firm, asserted that global foldable phone shipments decreased 1% year-on-year (compared to the previous Q3).
Oddly enough, other phone brands with foldable offerings saw considerable leaps in shipment volume.
Year-on-year, Xiaomi saw an additional 185%, Motorola an extra 164%, Honor an extra 121%, and even Huawei enjoyed a 23% boost in foldable shipments for the quarter.
Foldable phone shipments in previous Q3 (left) as compared to Q4 2024 (centre). The percentage points (right) indicate its relative change across these YoY quarters. Image: Counterpoint Research.
If the Counterpoint Research infographic is to be trusted, Xiaomi and Motorola now enjoy a 6% and 7% market share for Q3 foldables, respectively. They were just two mere blips on the chart with no percentage points.
Honor, previously with a 5% market share, also doubled its share to 10% for Q3 2024.
However, the total foldable shipments in the quarter were brought down because Samsung shipped 21% fewer foldables. That reduced Samsung’s market share to 56%, down from the previous 70% dominance.
More crucial is that the Korean electronics company launched the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 in the same quarter (Q3 being July to September). Typically, a launch period is one of the best times to sell new smartphones, which means it was an unexpected Q3 result for the chaebol.
See lah, Galaxy Z Flip5 did too well already, go and spoil market. Photo: HWZ.
Counterpoint Research further elaborated that the Galaxy Z Flip6 struggled to match its previous record set by its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Flip5. We quote:
“Among its new models, the book-type Galaxy Z Fold6 delivered a modest performance, while the clamshell Galaxy Z Flip6 struggled to match its predecessor’s sales.” - Counterpoint Research.
While we aren’t market research or macroeconomic experts, HWZ deduced that the Galaxy Z Flip6's performance was due to the lack of apparent upgrades, despite the foldable being nominated for Editor’s Choice.
As mentioned in our reviews, Galaxy Z Flip6 is a fantastic device. However, the Flex Window (the secondary display) saw only software upgrades. The crease stayed, and the shiny new addition (Galaxy AI) is available as a firmware update to older handsets. An increase in official retail price further compounds all this.
From our decades of experience, a good phone doesn’t always make a good upgrade, especially since consumer wallets and their money are finite resources.
Counterpoint Research takes a different perspective, saying that Samsung needs to be concerned with rivals like Honor and Motorola owing to their rapid growth, experimental innovation, and similar launches in the same window.
The one point Counterpoint Research confers on with HWZ is that prohibitively high foldable prices act as the main barrier to foldables becoming even more mainstream in the eyes of consumers.
The foldable race heats up
The drop in Samsung’s foldable market share means little without a point of comparison. Unfortunately, we have that comparison.
Q3 2023 versus Q3 2024 global smartphone shipments. The one in black is Apple's iPhones. Image: Counterpoint Research.
In the same quarter, Counterpoint Research noted that Samsung saw a 1% decrease in total smartphone shipments year-on-year (Q3 2023 versus Q3 2024) despite a 2% increase in smartphone shipments globally.
The good news, however, is that Samsung dominated shipments in Q3 2024, commanding 19% of the market share.
Putting together both data points paints a bigger picture. Smartphone demand stayed fairly consistent, and Samsung has no problem getting phones into consumers' hands.
This means that the company may need to reconsider its foldable strategy to address the significant change in foldable market share. Perhaps it's finally time to decrease the crease.
The opposite is also true. Brands like Xiaomi, Honor, and Motorola, will also need to expedite their advancements in foldable phone technology and use cases if they want to gain further traction with future iterations. After all, they learnt a free lesson from Samsung: stagnating your tech and ignoring consumer preferences is not a good idea.
Source: Counterpoint Research (1, 2)
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