Increased competition driving foldable smartphones sales in Europe

A report from Counterpoint says while foldable smartphones are still a niche segment in Europe, sales are growing rapidly, partly due to new devices entering the market.

Counterpoint described 2024 as a “pivotal year” for Europe’s foldable smartphone market – sales increased 37% YoY, the main driver of which was what it calls the “book-type form factor”, for which sales increased 60%.

It still remains a small segment, accounting for around 2% of total smartphone sales and book-type foldables making up less than 1%, with Counterpoint pointing to consumer concerns over price, durability and use cases.

One of the key reasons it did grow however was the increase in competition, we’re told.  In 2022, Samsung accounted for 98% of book-type foldable smartphone sales in Europe, but by the end of 2023 its share had shrunk to 73% as Honor, Google, OnePlus and Tecno entered the market with their own devices.

Honor is held up as doing particularly well on that front – its Magic V2 and V3 helped it become the fastest-growing book-type foldable OEM in Europe in 2024, with sales increasing 377% YoY and its share tripling to 34%, says the report.  

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Tecno Phantom V Fold 2 also got shout outs for upping their respective manufacturer’s foldable game.

“Although it was still leading the market, the future looked ominous for Samsung, as it was seemingly struggling to make any major improvements to its Galaxy Fold range. But it looks like that is about to change,” stated the release. “In July 2025, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold7, its thinnest, lightest and most powerful foldable to date. After years of iterative upgrades, the Fold7 is a major step forward, and Samsung has finally closed the gap on the competition.

“At just 4.2 mm thickness when unfolded and weighing 215 gm, the Fold7 is the thinnest and lightest book-type foldable available in Europe (at the time of writing). And with its improved camera module and advanced Galaxy AI features, we expect the Galaxy Z Fold7 to be Samsung’s most popular book-type foldable to date.”

However we’re told Honor “looks set to regain the technical crown with its best foldable to date.” It launched the Magic V5 in China in July and will release it in Europe on August 28, apparently.

Meanwhile competition is expected to intensify next year with the rumoured entry of Apple into the foldable smartphone market, says Counterpoint. It adds that Apple is expected to introduce a book-type foldable for which it expects “relatively fast adoption in Europe’s big ultra-premium markets like the UK and Germany, which will likely provide a shot in the arm for the European foldables market.”

However foldable sales actually dropped in the first half of 2025, which it attributed to stagnating innovation and wider macro conditions impacting premium smartphone sales in particular. But it expects that to change in the second half, and accelerate in 2026.

By 2028, it reckons book-type foldable smartphone sales to reach almost 4 million a year, surpassing 2% of total smartphone sales, and that foldable smartphones in general will reach almost 10% of sales in Europe’s premium smartphone segment.

All in all, it doesn’t think mass-market adoption will happen any time soon for foldables, but it does expect them to take an increasingly larger share of the premium segment.

Source: https://www.telecoms.com