Huawei's foldable smartphone sales nearly double in third quarter, report says

Huawei Technologies saw its shipments of foldable smartphones nearly double in the third quarter, as the Chinese tech giant continues to dominate the domestic market ahead of the launch of its new Mate X6.

From July to September, the Shenzhen-based company shipped a total of 1.12 million foldable handsets, up 97 per cent year on year, cementing its status as bestselling foldable brand on the mainland market ahead of rivals such as Honor, Vivo, Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics, according to a report from research firm CINNO on Tuesday.

The surge was mainly on the back of Huawei's flagship Mate X5, which was launched last September and has remained the top-selling foldable model since. Huawei has been China's top

player in the foldable smartphone market for five consecutive years, the report said. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

The data was released ahead of the November 26 launch of the Mate X6, Huawei's next-generation foldable handset, which is eagerly anticipated by the market. More than 200,000 people submitted online pre-orders for the model within two hours of the reservation period that started on Wednesday.

The new launch also comes as China's smartphone market is on track to record its first annual sales growth in five years. Total smartphone sales in the country rose 2.3 per cent year on year in the third quarter, marking four consecutive quarters of growth, according to Counterpoint.

China is the world's biggest foldable smartphone market. In the third quarter, domestic sales increased 79 per cent year on year to 3.54 million units. The market penetration rate rose to 4.1 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent a year ago, demonstrating a "steady upward trend", according to CINNO.

Huawei is targeting the high-end segment amid its competition with other foldable smartphone vendors. In September, it launched the world's first commercial trifold smartphone, the Mate XT. This model, with an entry price of 19,999 yuan (US$2,762) for the mainland market, has helped Huawei go head-to-head against Apple's iPhone 16 series.

In the third quarter, the company accounted for 85 per cent of the high-end foldable handset market, defined as models priced above 10,000 yuan, according to CINNO.

A separate report from Chinese consultancy BCI, cited by Chinese media on Wednesday, estimated that Huawei's share of the domestic foldable smartphone market was 50.7 per cent.