A Glimpse into the Brilliant Strategy Behind Huawei's Leading Foldable Smartphone Innovation

DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Even the experts can agree – there's no tech brand quite as resilient as Huawei. Pushing through with innovation after innovation, Huawei has managed to make remarkable leaps in market domination, especially in the wearables and smartphones sector.

Its latest trailblazing efforts in the foldable smartphone sector have been most notable, which has landed the brand amongst the top 3 brands in the global foldable market.  According to a report by Counterpoint Research, in the first quarter of 2024, Huawei's global foldable smartphone market shipments increased by 257% year-on-year, and its market share reached 35%, dethroning Samsung as a frontrunner in foldable phone production.

A 5-Year Innovation Journey Powered by Foresight

It might have helped that Huawei was the first to predict foldable screens becoming an inevitable mainstream trend in future smartphone development – as early as nine years ago, Huawei BG CTO Li Xiaolong (Bruce Lee) also first mentioned a three-fold smartphone concept, which took years to develop.

As early as 2019, Huawei took the lead with the first release of HUAWEI Mate X at the 2019 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona – introducing a whole new form factor in smartphone design. 5 years on, Huawei is now hailed as an industry disruptor with the recent launch of HUAWEI Mate XT in China.

Turning Visions into Reality

To be able to make leaps and bounds in its 5 years between its first and latest foldable, Huawei fused a hard-charging corporate spirit with its innovative gene, taking an incisive approach to its innovations and carefully realizing each vision into a real-world possibility.

Every year, Huawei invests over 10% of its sales revenue into R&D. The total R&D investment over the last decade now exceeds CNY1.11 trillion, which means more than CNY 100 billion annually is dedicated to products and technology. According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Huawei is the world's 8th most innovative company, ranking 5th in the 2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.

This approach has clearly worked with every generation of Huawei foldable, each of which has had its success: the seamless external folding of Mate X, the seamless internal folding of the Mate X2, the remarkably thin, light, and powerful Mate X3/5, and the new-generation Mate XT triple fold technology – each product has had its groundbreaking technical highlight.

Solutions-focused Strategy: A User-First Approach

As highlighted by its spokespersons, Huawei found most of its motivation in user feedback and consumer support.

Some of the biggest consumer pain points the brand found were three main problems that arose from the foldable screen's durability, the overall build and weight of the device, and screen creases that would form overtime from frequent folding.

Tackling common user experience issues has become a top priority. Such a user-centric ethos made way for creative solutions for its foldables, which included the development of the water drop hinge, the advanced precision hinge hinge system, and the integration of Kunlun Glass.

At the same time, the brand has also managed to keep its products slim and lightweight; the newest Mate XT release has often been lauded for its thin design, and is famously known to equal in thickness with Samsung's bi-fold smartphone.

Pioneering An Era-Defining Trend

In China, Huawei has this week unveiled the all-new Mate X6 foldable.  Chinese consumers' enthusiasm for this phone also reached its peak after the Mate Brand Ceremony. As of November 26, the reservations on HUAWEI's official online store have exceeded 1 million. On social media platforms, many consumers have also shown strong expectations for it, reminding everyone once again of Huawei's stature as a "pioneer in foldable technology".

As the brand prepares to release the  HUAWEI Mate X6 outside of home ground, many other brands have already been trying to follow suit with their own versions of tri-foldables.

Not only is this a testament to Huawei's trailblazing vision, but such progresses are an essential part of a healthy tech industry that's largely been missing. Huawei's new foldable technology has already made a positive influence on a largely stagnating smartphone landscape, where more brands could use some inspiration in creativity and an adoption of a user-focused R&D strategy.