Huawei Technologies Co (華為), its spinoff brand Honor Terminal Co (榮耀) and Lenovo Group Ltd’s (聯想) Motorola have introduced plans for new foldable phones, betting on the nascent form factor to win over the ultra-competitive Chinese market.
Each firm is billing its upcoming device as a top-of-the-line handset, with Huawei pricing its P50 Pocket at 8,988 yuan (US$1,410), Honor calling the Magic V its first foldable flagship and a Lenovo executive poking fun at Motorola’s third attempt at a Razr clamshell handset.
Huawei is selling its foldable device in China after announcing it in a streamed event on Thursday.
The smartphone market is expected to grow to 1.35 billion shipments next year, International Data Corp data showed, and novel form factors and capabilities such as 5G wireless networking are the key to winning over customers.
Market leader Samsung Electronics Co is several generations into its foldables lineup, which saw its best sales yet with the release of the US$999 Galaxy Z Flip 3 clamshell in August.
This year, leading Chinese brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀) launched their own book-like Android devices, while close competitor Vivo Communication Technology Co (維沃) has also experimented with various forms.
Apple Inc has considered the category, but there are no foldable iPhones imminent.
Honor, which last year was sold to a government-backed consortium, and Motorola are looking to break into the top tier of global brands, while Huawei is attempting to stage a recovery after being derailed by sanctions from former US president Donald Trump’s administration.
The P50 Pocket is powered by Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon 888 chipset, replacing Huawei’s in-house HiSilicon processors, which it can no longer produce. Qualcomm is allowed to supply Huawei with 4G-capable variants of its silicon, limiting the appeal of the Chinese firm’s offerings at a time when 5G is an expected feature.
The new foldable also runs Huawei’s Harmony OS rather than the much more universal Android, another effect of US sanctions.
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