(Yicai Global) Nov. 10 -- Despite the overall decline in China’s smartphone market, folding screen handsets are being increasingly favored by consumers, with sales of foldable phones in the third quarter more than double the same period last year, according to an industry market research and consulting company.

From July to September, sales of folding screen mobile phones in the Chinese market reached 723,000 units, surging 114 percent annually, a report issued by Shanghai-based CINNO Research today showed. And, the sales in the first three quarters were higher than their respective same periods in 2021.

In terms of manufacturers, Chinese telecoms equipment titan Huawei Technologies’ foldable phone sales jumped 95 percent year-on-year, ranking first with a market share of 53.2 percent. Its Huawei P50 Pocket, launched at the end of last year, has been the single-quarter bestseller among folding handsets in the domestic market for three consecutive quarters.

Compared with the previous trend-setting landscape folding handsets, the vertical foldable phones are closer in size to normal smartphones when unfolded, thus greatly reducing the software adaptation requirements and making them easier to operate for users, CINNO said.

The market share of the vertical phones is expected to surge further in future, it added.

South Korea’s Samsung ranked second in China with a market share of 20.5 percent; followed by the Chinese trio of Xiaomi Corp., Vivo Communication Technology, and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications with 9 percent, 7.7 percent and 4.6 percent shares, respectively. Honor, which was spun off from Huawei, ranked sixth with a 3.1 percent share, the report noted.

Vivo, Oppo and Honor are all newcomers to the folding handset market this year.

China’s smartphone market continued its sluggish trend of the first half into the third quarter, with sales slumping 20.8 percent to 62.2 million units, marking the worst year-on-year performance since 2015, CINNO Research said in a report issued on Oct. 28.

Editor: Peter Thomas