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Economic Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
When Flip Flops: Foldable smartphone sales shrink in India
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 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 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.' Also Read | Airtel offers Perplexity Pro subscription worth ₹17,000/ year for free to all users IDC expects foldable shipments to decline by over 10% on year in 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 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 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 overall global shipments of foldables, Counterpoint Research has forecasted a single digit degrowth in 2025, after 2.9% YoY growth in 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.'
Vox
4 days ago
- Vox
Revenge of the flip phone
is a senior technology correspondent at Vox and author of the User Friendly newsletter. He's spent 15 years covering the intersection of technology, culture, and politics at places like The Atlantic, Gizmodo, and Vice. Despite rumors of its demise, the smartphone will continue to be your most important gadget for a long while. Paige Vickers/Vox; Getty Images I laughed out loud the first time I saw a folding phone. The contraptions, which debuted when the Samsung Galaxy Fold hit the market in 2019, are smartphones with bendable screens. You can fold them in half and put them in your pocket. That first Galaxy Fold was huge, heavy, cost nearly $2,000, and looked like it would snap in half the first time you used it. When folded, the tiny display on the front was not enough screen. When unfolded, the device became a creased tablet and too much screen. But after spending a few days with the latest iteration of that very gadget, which Samsung announced last week, I think the future of smartphones is more interesting than we thought. User Friendly A weekly dispatch to make sure tech is working for you, instead of overwhelming you. From senior technology correspondent Adam Clark Estes. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. We've all been beholden to smartphones for more than a decade. Although they're wonderfully capable pocket computers, smartphones are also a source of work stress and a place for doomscrolling, all wrapped up in a piece of hardware that hasn't evolved in a meaningful way in years. The new iPhone that will debut later this year, for example, will undoubtedly look and work a lot like last year's iPhone. This lack of innovation is why people have been saying for about a decade that the smartphone era has run its course. Soon, they say, we'll be wearing augmented reality glasses instead, or AI pins that we talk to. Despite rumors of its demise — including those coming from AI maximalists like Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg — the smartphone will continue to be your most important gadget for a long while. That doesn't mean you'll continue to carry around the same boring slab of glass you've had in your pocket since the late 2000s. Foldables, an unfortunately named category of devices with shape-shifting abilities, are finally becoming an appealing alternative. In a lot of ways, it feels like the comeback of a much older device: the flip phone. Samsung just released the $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is effectively the same size and thickness as my iPhone 15 Pro but opens up to reveal an 8-inch screen (about the size of an iPad Mini). The company also released the $1,100 Flip 7, which is 4.1 inches of screen folded up but becomes a full-sized smartphone when unfolded. Motorola has a similarly futuristic flip phone, the Razr Ultra, and Oppo has a comparable folding phone, the Find N5. Things get even more mind-bending in China, where Huawei sells the Mate XT, a phone that folds twice. Dubbed a 'trifold,' this form factor is basically a tablet that folds up like a brochure. Even Apple is reportedly working on a folding iPhone. 'If and when Apple enters this segment, they will create a lot of awareness,' said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at IDC. 'It will help the entire industry to move towards [foldables].' Folding phones are supposed to adapt to your needs: Start with the smaller screen for basic tasks, like checking notifications, and then switch to the bigger screens for writing emails and watching videos. As someone who dreads reading anything long on a small screen, I get the appeal. I really like the idea of making the device smaller, as the Samsung Flip and Motorola Razr do, to give me less screen to stare at for basic functions. It also makes me nostalgic for a time when these devices didn't fill up your entire pocket — or your attention span. Related How switching to a flip phone deepened my friendships More than anything, the idea that smartphones still have a few tricks up their sleeves brings me hope that, even if people like Altman and Zuckerberg really want us to, we won't all be wearing AI pins or smart glasses any time soon. 'Is the smartphone going to be replaced? I think at some point, yeah,' Gerrit Schneemann, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, told me. 'But I think it's going to take a long time for that to shift, so not in the next five years.' The hunt for an iPhone successor There was a time when people were obsessed with their phones, and these devices were a source of wonderment and fun. (This was well before we knew how phones were cooking our brains.) Companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung got into an arms race over how many cameras they could cram onto a device or how high the screen resolution could go. By the late 2010s, however, the specs had more or less maxed out. Even cheap phones were really good. So people held onto their phones for longer, breaking the annual upgrade cycle. Devicemakers started inventing reasons to upgrade, like the introduction of 5G wireless technology, which was really important to carriers but didn't impact consumers all that much. More recently, there's been a similar push to upgrade your phone to take advantage of AI features, even when the ChatGPT app works just fine on most phones. Apple ended up getting sued several times over how it marketed its Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones. Whatever the future of the smartphone is, standalone AI devices have not done well so far. In 2024, the Humane Pin, a $700 AI-powered device that clipped to your shirt and projected text messages onto your hand, became one of the biggest flops in gadget history, lasting less than a year on the market. The Rabbit R1, a smartphone-adjacent little box that promised to be a personal assistant, also got awful reviews last year. Even the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which I've spent hours testing, currently struggle as a smartphone replacement (Meta has admitted as much). You can talk to the AI assistant, but you have to take out your phone to get anything done. Related Your iPhone is about to get uglier 'I'm not sure why they've decided voice is a good input method, but I'm not totally certain users are actually ever going to be comfortable doing that,' said Max Weinbach, an analyst at Creative Strategies. That brings us back to the familiar glow of a smartphone screen. Love it or hate it, this will continue to be your portal into the digital world for years to come — but probably not forever. Meta, Apple, and Google are all working on their versions of augmented or mixed reality devices. In addition to the Ray-Ban glasses, Meta revealed the Orion glasses last fall, which project virtual elements onto the real world and make you look goofy in the process. Apple is expected to release the second-generation Vision Pro headset, a very expensive set of goggles that also mix the real and virtual worlds, later this year on the way to its own lightweight glasses. Both devices currently require you to keep a smartphone-sized component in your pocket for the glasses to work. So we're a ways away from a total smartphone replacement. Foldables, in the meantime, create a sort of bridge. If your hope is to spend less time staring at screens, a new-fangled flip phone like the Samsung Flip or the Motorola Razr is a good compromise, since the small screen ostensibly keeps you from looking at the big screen too much. If you want to be more immersed in your daily content, a device like the Galaxy Fold makes certain sense in the absence of a true augmented reality experience that turns the real world digital. If you really just want more control over your screen time and you're not enthralled by the idea of talking to an AI all day or dealing with anything foldable, I have to recommend the Light Phone 3. This compact device for digital minimalists is effectively a smartphone that's been stripped of the most addictive features. I like to think of it as a weekend phone that lets you put your smartphone life on hold for an extended period of time. On the Light Phone, there is no app store, and thus, no TikTok or any other endless feeds. There are simply tools like maps, a music player, a messaging feature, and of course, a phone. As Kaiwei Tang, co-creator of the Light Phone, told me earlier this year, 'We don't want the device to try to fight for your attention, or be shiny. We wanted it to be calm, low key, and just disappear, even when you use it.' I've tried out all of these form factors, because I'm a nerd and because it's my job. As appealing as they are, I won't be switching to either of Samsung's foldable options permanently, because I am stuck in the Apple ecosystem and basically satisfied. I tried switching to the Light Phone, but as a young parent, I'm too dependent on being constantly connected — for better or worse. I also have a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses that I primarily use as sunglasses that can also play podcasts. You could say that I'm stuck somewhere between the future and the past. As eager as I am for something new to come along and unify my digital life, as the smartphone did so many years ago, I find myself reaching for different devices for specific purposes. But I'm also nostalgic for the time when each gadget had its purpose, when a flip phone was what I used to make calls and an iPod was how I listened to music. My smartphone can do it all, sure, and it will for years to come.
Business Insider
7 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Get a free $300 Amazon gift card
Samsung recently announced its newest foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 7. With the best camera we've seen on a Fold to date, exclusive AI features, improved battery life, and a sleeker, slimmer design, we're sure you'll want to get yours as soon as possible. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and even score a deal in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 starts at $1,999.99 at Samsung and will be available on July the Galaxy Z Fold 7 hasn't been officially released yet, there are already deals to be had on the new device. Our favorite is from Amazon, which is offering the phone with double the storage plus a free $300 Amazon gift card. The bundle deal costs just $1,999.99, which is the starting price of the phone alone on Samsung's website. Samsung's newest Galaxy Fold model features a bigger, yet slimmer design than previous models, exclusive AI features, and the best camera on a Fold yet. Get a free $300 Amazon gift card and double the storage with this bundle. HighlightsIf you're not an Amazon shopper, you can also take advantage of these preorder deals from other new Fold phone comes in four colors, including one that is only available when you order on the Samsung website, so you can choose the one that best suits your personal foldable phones | Best Samsung phones | Best phones | Best phone battery life | Best budget phones | Best iPhonesFollow us on Instagram and WhatsApp for the latest deals, reviews, and buying guides.
India Today
10-07-2025
- India Today
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs Fold 6: Every difference that you wanted to know
Samsung has finally launched the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and this one feels like the major upgrade Fold fans have been waiting for. If last year's Fold 6 was more of a refinement over the Fold 5, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 takes things to the next level — not just in terms of design, but also usability and overall polish. It's lighter, thinner, and somehow manages to pack more into a sleeker form. While it might not scream 'different' in press photos, once you see the Fold 7 next to the Fold 6 — or better yet, hold it in hand — the changes become very obvious. There's a new look, the latest colour options, improved displays and a fresh camera setup. Basically, plenty to unpack here (pun intended). Let's break down exactly how the Fold 7 improves upon the Fold lighter, smarter designOn the surface, the Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 and Fold 6 might look nearly identical, but side by side, the Fold 7 is clearly a design win. Samsung has trimmed the device down impressively — it's now just 8.9mm thick when folded, compared to 12.1mm on the Fold 6. Weight has dropped too, from 239 grams to just 215 grams, making it the slimmest and lightest Galaxy Fold yet. That's even lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra and even the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is quite a feat for a foldable. The new Blue Shadow colour looks stunning (might remind you of the blue S24 shade), and Samsung has added Gorilla Glass Armor on the front, which cuts down glare and helps visibility there is one trade-off — Samsung has removed the digitiser layer, which means there's no S Pen support this year. It's a bit of a bummer for stylus users, but clearly a call made to prioritise slimness. And to be fair, going from one of the thickest foldables to the slimmest in just one generation is a big and better displays Samsung has also made some useful tweaks to the screens. The outer display on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is now 6.5 inches with a proper 21:9 aspect ratio, making it feel more like a regular smartphone when closed. The Fold 6's outer screen was 6.3 inches and narrower at 22.1:9, which felt a bit cramped for typing. Inside, the main display has grown to 8 inches (up from 7.6 inches), and Samsung has worked on another round of crease reduction, making the viewing experience smoother and cleaner. Peak brightness remains a strong 2,600 nits along with the usual HDR10 support and Vision Booster goodness, which is ideal for outdoor and softwareUnder the hood, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, which should bring in major performance gains over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that powers the Fold 6. It's also the first Galaxy Fold to offer a 16GB RAM variant, available on the 1TB storage model. Other options include 12GB RAM with 256GB or 512GB also get One UI 8 based on Android 16 out of the box, with improved Gemini AI integration and new features sprinkled throughout the get a much-needed boostadvertisementThe biggest jump comes with the main camera, quite literally. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 now uses the same 200-megapixel sensor found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. That's a serious upgrade from the Fold 6's 50-megapixel main shooter, and it should mean significantly better detail and low-light performance. The 12-megapixel ultra-wide and 10-megapixel telephoto cameras remain the same across both inner under-display selfie camera has finally been replaced by a 10-megapixel hole-punch camera, a welcome move that should result in better quality for video calls and selfies. The external selfie camera remains a 10-megapixel snapper, just like life and chargingThe battery on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 remains unchanged at 4,400mAh, with 25W wired and 15W wireless charging. While there's no fancy new battery tech like a silicon-carbon cell yet, Samsung's software optimisations have generally ensured reliable, all-day endurance. And given how much slimmer and lighter the phone is now, maintaining the same battery capacity is actually quite upOverall, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 feels like the upgrade Samsung needed to make. It fixes several of the Fold 6's lingering issues, adds useful improvements, and makes the device more comfortable to use every day. Losing the S Pen might sting for some, but the overall gains in design, performance, and usability are hard to argue with. If you've been on the fence about foldables, this might be the one to finally win you said, the phone doesn't come cheap. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 price in India starts at Rs 1,74,999 for the base 256GB storage option, and goes up to Rs 1,86,999 and Rs 2,10,999 for the 512GB and 1TB storage versions, tuned to India Today Tech for all the latest on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.- Ends
Indian Express
09-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
High percentage of non-Galaxy users switching to Galaxy Fold: Samsung executive at Unpacked
More non-Galaxy users are switching to the Galaxy Z Fold than ever before, a sign that demand for such devices is increasing, and that differentiating through hardware has become the company's hallmark in the high-end smartphone market. 'I would say the conversion rate from non-Galaxy users to the Galaxy Fold is much higher, especially among those who want to experience the new form factor. Yes, there is also a share of existing Galaxy users switching over to the Galaxy Fold, including some Galaxy Ultra users,' Dr Won-Joon Choi, President and COO, Mobile eXperience Business and Head of the R&D Office, Samsung Electronics, told in New York. Samsung introduced a new set of foldable phones Wednesday, seeking to counter folding devices from Chinese smartphone players and the upcoming iPhone lineup from Apple. The South Korean company highlighted the slim profile and AI features as key strengths of its newly launched, ultra-high-end Galaxy Z Fold 7. Samsung said the Galaxy Z Fold 7 measures 8.9mm when folded and 4.2mm when open. The device weighs 215 grams, making it one of the lightest foldable smartphones on the market. The previous version weighed 239 grams. The South Korean tech giant has been heavily promoting these features as competition in the foldables market intensifies, especially from Chinese brands, even as foldable devices still represent a small share of the overall smartphone market. 'Samsung has been able to establish that foldables are a unique, revenue-driving and brand-enhancing segment within its portfolio. In 2024, flip and fold devices make up 3.5% of its global shipments but account for over 10% of the value of its shipments. This has been key in helping it differentiate itself while targeting ultra-high-end consumers,' said Runar Bjorhovde, Senior Analyst at market research agency Canalys. The thinness of a foldable phone has become an important unique selling point (USP), appealing to smartphone users who want the large screen size the device offers without the extra weight. According to Canalys, 17.2 million foldable smartphones were sold worldwide in 2024, with almost half of them sold in China. Huawei was the foldable market leader in China, selling close to 4.2 million flip and fold devices in 2024. However, brands like Honor, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi are providing strong competition to Samsung in the foldable space. Internationally, Honor remains Samsung's biggest competitor in the foldable device market. Samsung was the global market leader with a 45 per cent market share in 2024, while other players held a combined share of 55 per cent, according to Canalys. For Samsung, however, there is increased competition from both Chinese smartphone players and Apple in its key markets. Foldable phones give Samsung an edge over Apple, which doesn't offer a foldable but is expected to launch one on the market sometime next year. Canalys's Bjorhovde believes that the entry of Apple benefits the entire foldable smartphone category, helping other vendors eventually reduce the manufacturing cost of foldables and increase market options. The average selling price (ASP) of a bar phone sold in 2024 was $435 (including Apple), while flip phones averaged $968 and foldables reached $1,693, according to Canalys. Price remains the biggest hurdle to the wider adoption of foldables. Bjorhovde noted that while the high-end segment might be sizable, it shrinks significantly when Apple is excluded, putting pressure on Samsung to grow its share in the premium segment. While the Galaxy Z Fold 7 comes in at a premium $2,000, Samsung is also launching the $1,099 Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the $899 Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, aiming to appeal to more budget-conscious users. Both the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Flip 7 FE fold down into a square shape and now feature an external display that covers the majority of one side, making them more functional when closed. Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin. Email: ... Read More
