Huawei Technologies, China’s leading smartphone maker, has revealed the new flagship design feature of its next generation of 5G mobiles – they will be foldable.

As the company strives to narrow the sales gap with market leader Samsung, its rotating chairman Ken Hu told a 5G panel at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin on Tuesday its first flexible 5G phone will be introduced by the middle of next year, offering faster speeds and lower latency.

“At 100 times faster than today, [buyers] are also going to enjoy an amazing high-definition video experience with a big screen on your smartphone,” Hu said.

Huawei is chasing down Samsung after outstripping Apple by number of phone shipments earlier this year.
The Shenzhen firm says total sales of its two main phone brands – Huawei and Honor – surged 15.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 from 11 per cent at the same stage last year compared with Samsung’s 20.9 per cent and Apple’s 12.1 per cent this year.

Huawei’s second place in the global mobile sales rankings comes against the backdrop of a saturated overall market which reported a 1.8 per cent decline in shipments April to June this year against last, according to research agency IDC.

Other Chinese smartphone vendors including Oppo and Vivo have also announced plans to introduce 5G phones as the new technology edges towards full commercialisation, expected in China by 2020.

New smartphone innovations, however, have largely flatlined in recent years, with the latest offerings merely updating earlier versions, according to Sissi Chu, vice-president of mobile big data consultancy Aurora Mobile.
Smartphones with a foldable screen could be one of the few major technology innovations expected in the near future, and they could help boost sales again as consumers yearn for change
Sissi Chu, vice-president of mobile big data consultancy Aurora Mobile

“Smartphones with a foldable screen could be one of the few major technology innovations expected in the near future, and they could help boost sales again as consumers yearn for change,” she said.

Samsung is also expected to unveiled its own plans for foldable screens soon.

Its mobile division CEO DJ Koh said in early September that it was “time to deliver” on a foldable device after consumer surveys carried out by the Korean giant showed the market is ripe for such handsets.

ZTE Corp, the Chinese telecoms equipment and smaller smartphone vendor, released the Axon M duel-screened smartphone nearly a year ago. But it failed to excite the industry.