Samsung’s original Galaxy Flip was the phone that got me hooked on foldables. Before clamshells, devices were big and bulky, like the Galaxy Fold. The goal was to squeeze as much screen space into a pocketable design as possible, rather than embracing portability. In the case of the Fold, the result is a device that’s huge, even when closed.
The Flip’s success seemed to surprise Samsung. Despite the advertising support it had poured into the Fold, the clamshell Flip accounted for 70% of the company’s foldable sales in 2021—a year after its initial launch. The combination of portability and a fairly low price point helped Samsung ship more than 10 million foldables that year.
Samsung is still the 500-pound gorilla of foldables, but the company’s success has made the category a lot less lonely in recent years. Increased competition has improved the market, bringing more variety to the devices, and forcing the giant to rethink some of its orthodoxy in the process.
A recent vintage is the decision to slightly widen the Fold’s narrow front screen. It’s not a huge difference (neither the Z Fold 6 nor the Z Flip 6 showed much of a difference), but it could be a response to feedback about the always-awkward aspect ratio.
For a device like the Fold, pure novelty alone can keep consumers interested for years. But consumer electronics have short attention spans. The glow of early adopters fades after a few generations of improvements. That’s doubly true when competitors like Google’s Pixel Fold and OnePlus Open come out with new ideas.
But one of the most compelling contenders came from an unexpected corner of the mobile world. When Motorola’s foldable Razr was announced a few months after Samsung’s first Fold went on sale, I admit I gave it away. It was a novelty in its own right, an exclusive that slapped a beloved but outdated brand onto a new device. It felt like a cynical product of the Hollywood reboot era.
The 2020 Razr’s reception wasn’t helped by the fact that, like the first Fold, it launched half-baked. The specs didn’t quite warrant its $1,200 price tag, and the folding mechanism itself wasn’t all that great. For a while, it felt like the entire folding category was flying under the radar.
So far, foldables haven’t made much of a difference in terms of slowing smartphone sales, but the form factor is enduring. According to Counterpoint Research, the global foldables market grew 49% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2024. Huawei, an early entrant into the category that has been hampered by issues with the U.S. and other foreign governments, had a great quarter, surpassing Samsung for the first time ever.
Huawei, which is banned from the US, saw a significant growth of 257% year-over-year in the quarter. The shipments were mostly in Huawei’s home country of China, where the long-awaited transition from LTE to 5G took place. Motorola, a Chinese company, saw a huge growth worldwide, jumping a whopping 1,473%. Samsung fell 42% in the quarter, but still held second place globally with 23% of the total market.
Both the Fold/Flip 6 and the Motorola Razr+ have only recently been released and haven't had a meaningful impact on quarterly shipments, but we expect both to see notable growth driven by well-received devices.
Samsung’s biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to keep the category exciting. Increasing market share is no longer just a matter of education. The company needs to convince non-foldable owners that it’s time to make the leap and entice existing customers to refresh their existing ones. That’s a tough task right now, with the Fold and Flip starting at $1,900 and $1,100, respectively.
The Flip 6 still outperforms the Razr+ in terms of imaging, which is something Samsung has long excelled at. However,
Motorola has learned from its early mistakes and delivered a great folding experience. The design is great, and the 3.6-inch front display that almost extends from edge to edge looks great. But Motorola’s real secret weapon is the price.
While $1,000 may not seem like a great deal on the surface, this handset is always on sale. It was released earlier this week with a $100 discount. Meanwhile, the 2023 predecessor is available now on Amazon for $600.
Samsung is rumored to be working on a cheaper version of the Fold that will be released later this year, but the company may have been hesitant about doing so. That’s a shame, because Samsung is no longer the only company, and the next real innovation in foldables will be affordability.
