The Honor Magic Vs was showcased at the Honor stand at the Mobile World Congres in Barcelona. The device priced close to $1,700 is Honor’s attempt to challenge Samsung in the foldable smartphone market.
Arjun Kharpal CNBC
It looks like the year of the foldable – a term used to describe smartphones with bendable screens.
Many foldable devices have hit the international market this year, as electronics giants, especially Chinese ones, look to Samsung in the smartphone category to pioneer it.
Analysts have questioned how big the foldable category will be, given the device’s high price and lack of clear use today.
“They’re all great, everyone loves them, but do we know how big the market is?” Ben Wood, chief research officer at CCS Insight, told CNBC via email.
“We are only at the beginning of the journey for folding stories, which is far from the mature category.”
Foldables reach the global market
Samsung launched its first foldable phone in 2019 and really created this category of smarpthones. The device has a single screen that can bend, giving users a larger screen view in a pocketable device.
Since the Samsung Galaxy Fold was announced about four years ago, the South Korean giant has launched several other devices. The Galaxy Fold series unfolds like a book, while the Galaxy Z Flip unfolds like a traditional flip phone.
Samsung accounts for 80% of global foldable shipments by 2022, according to Canalys. The market expects shipments of foldable phones to grow 111% annually to 30 million by 2023.
However, these devices account for just over 1% of the total smartphone market, according to IDC data.
That potential growth is something the company is chasing, as it tries to catch up with Samsung.
Last month, Chinese vendor Oppo launched the Find N2 Flip, and Honor, a spin-off brand from Huawei, came out with the Magic Vs for the international market.
Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang told CNBC Wednesday that Motorola will bring a new version of its foldable Razr device later this year. Lenovo owns Motorola.
It comes as speculation mounts that Apple could be ready to launch a foldable device, though it could be an iPad rather than a smartphone.
Folding has lost its ‘wow factor’
Honor CEO George Zhao told CNBC in an interview last week that there are still many challenges with foldable devices, especially battery life, device weight and high cost. Honor’s Magic Vs is priced at over $1,600.
But the push of electronic players to launch foldables comes from the desire for this brand to make inroads into the premium end of the smartphone market, which Samsung and Apple a lot of dominance.
High-end smartphones – those priced at more than $800 – will account for 18% of the total handset market in 2022, up from 11% in 2020, Canalys data shows.
“When they see a foldable device, they are more connected [an] trying to improve their brand image by showcasing innovation rather than selling large volumes,” Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst at Canalys, told CNBC via email.
The “wow factor” may be gone for consumers now that Samsung has had its foldable smartphone on the market for several years, according to Bjørhovde, who said that, eventually, lower prices will be necessary for competitors to compete with South Korea. electronics giant.
The foldable phone is “unsurprising and unexpected, and a big part of the reason is Samsung’s massive marketing investment that has normalized the form factor,” the analyst said.
He added that revolutionizing foldables will be almost impossible, going forward.
“Developments will be more about gradual evolution and lowering price points. Lower price points will be especially key for vendors out to challenge Samsung’s dominance,” Bjørhovde said.