Chinese brands follow Samsung into flip phone space
flip phones is brewing in the Indian smartphone market sweepstakes. Emulating Samsung, Chinese smartphone brands are launching innovative flip phones to target affluent customers, opening more premium pastures for the brands to operate in.
While Samsung still leads in terms of sales, Chinese brands such as Tecno, Oppo, and Motorola have joined the fight with their own interpretations of a flip phone.
OnePlus will also be joining the bandwagon later this month with a more premium foldable-style smartphone.
Market tracker Counterpoint Research said Chinese flip phones still have a lot of catching up to do. Shilpi Jain, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, estimated Samsung's flip phone shipments at 50,000-60,000 units in the first two months since launch in July 2023.
In comparison, Motorola and Tecno's shipments are at 18,000-20,000 phones each every month. Motorola was the first to challenge Samsung, unveiling two new flip phone models just a few weeks before Samsung hosted a grand event in Seoul this year to launch its fifth-generation foldable phones at just under ₹1 lakh.
One of the flip phones Moto launched is priced under ₹50,000, an industry-first.
Tecno and Oppo followed in October with their offerings, but here the differentiation came not only in the price, but also in the design and features. Tecno rolled out a circular cover display along with mid-range specifications at also under ₹50,000, while Oppo sought to reinvent the segment with a vertical cover screen that functions as a regular smartphone display along with improved cameras and battery life.
«The form factor in itself has become mainstream.
