Samsung tops global foldable phone shipments in Q3: Report

Seoul: Samsung Electronics solidified its top position in the global foldable smartphone market in the third quarter this year, industry data showed on Saturday.

Samsung accounted for 64 per cent of all global shipments of foldable smartphones in the July-September period, up 8 percentage points from a year ago, according to a report from Counterpoint Research, a market tracker, reports Yonhap news agency.

The company further widened its gap with China’s Huawei Technologies Co., whose market share remained unchanged from a year ago at 15 percent during the cited period, the report said.

Motorola Mobility ranked third with a seven percent market share, followed by China’s Honor Device at 4 per cent, Vivo Mobile Communications at 4 per cent and Xiaomi at 2 per cent.

“Global shipments of foldable smartphones went up 14 percent on-year and climbed to a record quarterly high, led by the popularity of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 series,” the report said.

Foldable smartphones accounted for 2.5 percent of all smartphone shipments made in the third quarter this year, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the market tracker expected the global foldable smartphone market to grow rapidly next year due to technical developments and increased demand for premium devices amid a potential release of foldable smartphones from Apple Inc.

Reports have said that Apple is working on a foldable phone, with its release to come as early as 2026.

Meanwhile, Samsung has showcased its first trifold smartphone, which features two folding hinges and a 10-inch display when fully unfolded, as the tech giant doubles down on its folding phone portfolio.

The Galaxy Z TriFold comes with a 6.5-inch cover display when folded, similar to its foldable sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, allowing users to adapt the device for different usage situations, Samsung Electronics said.

Samsung will release a single version of the Galaxy Z TriFold with 512 gigabytes of storage in black. The price tag is set at 3.59 million won (US$2,430).

The Galaxy Z TriFold is also the slimmest device yet among Samsung’s foldable models, measuring 12.9 mm when folded and 3.9 mm when fully unfolded.