Huawei and other Chinese competitors reported higher demand for foldables after the announcement of Apple's new iPhone Duo. Demand for some foldable phones in China is surging, even before Apple's new foldable iPhone Duo arrives, suggesting an opportunity for Apple to expand what has been a niche category. Winning over China is key to Apple's fortunes, as the country makes up more than a third of global folding smartphone sales and is the largest single market for foldables, according to research firm Counterpoint Research. Chinese company Huawei is currently the market leader in China, both for foldables and smartphones generally. Huawei released its first folding smartphone in 2019. Other Chinese brands, including Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Honor, have been selling foldables for years. After Apple announced its first foldable iPhone in early September, sales during the following four days of Huawei's Pura X Max--which has similar dimensions to the Duo--grew about 77% from the same period a week earlier, according to Huawei. More than 1.4 million units of the Pura X Max have been sold since its release in April, according to Huawei. Xiaomi's 18 Fold, another passport-size folding phone, notched record first-week sales for the company's foldables after its release in early September. Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei's consumer business, said the company has invested heavily to make breakthroughs in screen reliability and camera quality for its foldables. "I know how hard-earned these achievements were, which is why we are a leader in this business," said Yu.
Despite Apple's late entry into the market, Counterpoint projects the company will sell up to six million foldable iPhones this year and take a quarter of the global foldables market. The firm predicts Apple will beat out Huawei's 22% global market share. Foldable pioneer Samsung, which has only a small presence in China, is expected to maintain its lead with a 38% global share in foldables, according to Counterpoint. Huawei is effectively barred from selling its products in the U.S. It has been blacklisted by the U.S. government since 2019 and is effectively blocked from using American technology. The company has gotten around these U.S. barriers by developing its own chips and operating systems. Its latest lineup of smartphones, the Mate 90 Series, released Thursday, uses technology to layer circuits within a single chip, aiming to boost computing power des...
Source: Wall Street Journal US Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing