When Flip Flops: Foldable smartphone sales shrink in India

Economic Times

18-07-2025

New Delhi: It flips, it folds, and now it flops. Foldable smartphones—hailed as the future of mobile handsets when they debuted seven years ago—are now seeing their sales charts do some folding of their own.Despite multiple iterations and a drop in the average selling price (ASP), foldable smartphone shipments in India fell 47% year-on-year in 2024, when they accounted for less than 0.5% of the overall market, according to IDC.This was followed by another 20% dip in the first quarter of 2025, as per the market research firm that tracks shipments from manufacturers to distributors and retailers.
Counterpoint Research, which tracks retail sales to consumers, reported a 12% on-year decline in 2024, and a sharper 36% fall in the quarter ended March. Analysts expect foldables to remain a niche segment for the foreseeable future as consumers largely consider the devices fragile, pricey—notwithstanding recent price cuts—and lacking attractive use-cases.
'Despite all the attention new foldable devices receive, they are still too expensive for mass-market appeal,' said Jan Stryjak, associate director at Counterpoint Research. 'Further, most consumers are still not sure what a foldable phone is for, and may still have concerns about the durability and longevity of the devices.'
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IDC expects foldable shipments to decline by over 10% on year in 2025.Counterpoint is more optimistic, forecasting a turnaround with about 20% growth this calendar year, driven by Samsung's latest foldables and fresh launches from Vivo and Motorola.Yet, the segment is expected to remain niche with sales of under 800,000 units in 2025, said Shubham Singh, analyst at Counterpoint. According to the researcher, India's smartphone sales reached 153 million units in 2024.India is not an outlier. Even in developed markets like Europe and the US, foldable smartphone shipments have remained flattish, despite increased competition driving prices downwards, according to multiple analysts.For overall global shipments of foldables, Counterpoint Research has forecasted a single digit degrowth in 2025, after 2.9% YoY growth in 2024.However, the segment remains aspirational, and brands continue to launch new models as a showcase of their engineering prowess, experts said.'Moving into their seventh year as a commercial category, foldables are no longer emerging,' said Runar Bjørhovde, senior analyst at market analysis firm Canalys. 'But uptake continues to be limited to tech enthusiastic premium buyers, partly due to high price points.'
The average selling price of foldable smartphones in India was $1,234, or about Rs 1.06 lakh, in 2024, down from $1,299 in 2023, according to IDC. It is expected to decline further this year with more brands entering the segment. Samsung—which had a head start in the foldable market with its Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip models—continues to dominate the category with a 79% share in India, according to Counterpoint. It is followed by Motorola with 11% market share and Vivo with 5%.Still, Samsung faces increasing competition from rivals undercutting its pricing and offering productivity-focused features.'The next wave of competition will come from software—how vendors use the foldable form factor to deliver truly differentiated experiences,' said Sheng Win Chow, senior analyst at Canalys. 'Combining multimodal AI with foldable UX unlocks new possibilities, especially in productivity, multitasking, and language tools.'According to Bjørhovde, 'AI features are slowly moving up in the decision hierarchy, particularly in markets such as India and China.'