We’ve been talking about them for more than half a decade at this point, but it seems the foldable smartphone is still in its nascent stages of perfection and popularity. The Samsung Galaxy Z series dominates the conversation overall, but foreign competitors like Vivo have been taking big strides in the segment and making us wish we could buy the X Flip in North America. But with a power vacuum in place, a new survey indicates Americans are raring for a particular brand to get on with its own foldable smartphones.
In its findings, Counterpoint Research says US consumers’ interest in foldables has reached new highs — specifically for the clamshell foldables like the Galaxy Z Flip 4. 28% of existing smartphone owners surveyed say they are “highly likely” to choose a foldable for their next upgrade. Samsung is the brand of choice for a plurality at 46%.
What’s particularly interesting is that around 39% of the respondents said they’d prefer an Apple foldable — something that doesn’t exist in the current marketplace — with only 6% saying they’d consider a Motorola Razr. Further reinforcing the company’s market capture, 92% of current Samsung phone owners said they’d opt for the company’s foldable when they decide to buy one.
Counterpoint estimates 4.7 million foldables are in active use in the United States as of 2022. That number is only set to grow as the next generation of foldables arrive in the marketplace.
One ongoing concern with foldables has been their high upfront cost which makes them inaccessible to a large portion of the potential audience. 41% of respondents with a monthly salary of $10,000 or above say they are most likely going to pick up a foldable as their next phone.
Money matters could be favoring the smaller clamshell-style devices rather than book-type phones: 49% of those asked said they’d prefer a flip phone against 35% who wanted a phablet. That said, when looking at the results through the prism of gender, the clamshell got more than half of the men’s and 49% of the women’s vote. Book-types were endorsed by 40% of the female respondents and only 30% of male respondents.
Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Z Flip 5 this year, possibly in August. Assuming the survey’s findings are accurate, Samsung could be positioned to continue dominating the US foldable market in the foreseeable future.
However, the equation could change considerably when Apple eventually unveils its foldable iPhone, though that’s not expected to happen for a couple of years at least. Let’s not forget Google’s Pixel Fold, which will also have several takers whenever it becomes available perhaps later this year — next month’s Google I/O should give us more details.
