Motorola Razr folding screen is popular, Samsung Huawei is facing a big crisis?

Ray Technology

2024-05-24 20:08Posted in Guangdong science and technology field creators

Except for the time when it took the lead in launching a vertical folding screen mobile phone with a classic design - Motorola Razr in 2019, Motorola's presence in the folding screen mobile phone market is not high at all. Even if it is the first batch of manufacturers to release folding screen mobile phones in 2019 with Samsung and Huawei, it is rarely compared.

The most direct point is: there are too few people who really buy Motorola folding screens.

But when Motorola really makes a difference, many people may find that they are underestimating it. Market research agency TechInsights recently released a 2024 Q1 global folding screen mobile phone market report, which shows that Lenovo's Motorola with the Razr series of folding screen mobile phones, the year-on-year shipment volume has reached an astonishing 1260%, even surpassing Samsung:

It has become the first place in the North American market of folding screen mobile phones.

Photo/Motorola

As the old saying goes, "don't be impressed in three days", but what changes have taken place in the folding screen mobile phone market in these "three days"? And what did Motorola do?

The "motorcycle" engine accelerates the continued growth of folding screen mobile phones

According to a report by TechInsights, in the first quarter of this year, the global folding screen mobile phone market continued to grow significantly in addition to South America, especially in North America and Africa, which achieved more than 100% year-on-year growth.

The sustained and rapid growth of folding screen mobile phones, on the one hand, shows that the market potential of folding screen mobile phones itself is still being tapped, but on the other hand, the growth of market size is also jointly promoted by the supply side - folding screen mobile phone manufacturers.

When we take a closer look at the changes in the growth rate and market share of specific brands, we will also find that the market pattern of folding screen mobile phones has undergone a lot of changes in the first quarter of 2024. One of the most obvious changes is Motorola.

In the North American market, which increased by 143% year-on-year, Samsung's shipments were the same as last year, which also made Motorola surpass Samsung for the first time in the market share of folding screen mobile phones and became the largest folding screen mobile phone manufacturer in North America.

图/TechInsights

In the European market, which increased by 38% year-on-year, Samsung, which ranked first, even began to decline, and Motorola, which ranked second, continued to grow; In the South American market, which fell by 25% year-on-year, Samsung continued to decline, and Motorola continued to grow; Only in the African market, which has a year-on-year increase of 176%, Samsung, Motorola and Huawei, the three TOP3 manufacturers, have all shared market dividends, and shipments have increased to varying degrees.

At the same time, Motorola has also become the world's fourth largest folding screen mobile phone manufacturer and the second largest vertical folding screen mobile phone manufacturer.

It is also worth mentioning that, judging from the report of TechInsights, Motorola is also the manufacturer with the strongest growth in global folding screen mobile phone shipments in the first quarter of 2024, with a year-on-year growth of 1260% and even far exceeding the second-ranked glory (480%).

In fact, it is not only the first quarter of this year, Motorola has begun to break out in the second quarter of 2023. Also from a report from TechInsights, in the second quarter of 2023, Motorola achieved a year-on-year growth of 2135% in the folding screen mobile phone market, and its market share also surpassed Xiaomi, Honor and other manufacturers, ranking fifth in the world.

Of course, you can say that this is because Motorola had a small base before, but you certainly can't deny that Motorola has had great success over the past year. Behind this success is inseparable from the development of the market and the spread of channels, but the product is still the core.

After years of hibernation, Motorola broke out for a year

If someone wants to write a "brief history of folding screen mobile phones", they must not avoid 2019, and they must also avoid Samsung, Huawei and Motorola.

Razr 2019, Photo/Motorola

At the end of 2019, as Samsung and Huawei successively released their first folding screen mobile phones, Motorola reproduced the Razr blade design that was born in 2004 and also launched its first folding screen mobile phone.

Unlike Samsung and Huawei, which both focus on making the phone screen bigger, Motorola's choice is to use a vertical folding screen design to make the phone more portable.

In fact, it was also inspired and verified by Motorola that Samsung later launched the Galaxy Z Flip series with "one model that sells more than all folding screen phones", including Huawei's P50 Pocket, Pocket S and other folding screen products.

On the other hand, the Motorola Razr released in 2019 also adopted a teardrop-shaped hinge design for the first time, which subtly improved the headache of creases on folding screen phones. Today, the teardrop-shaped hinge design has also become the standard design of almost all folding screen mobile phones.

So to a certain extent, Motorola really defined today's folding screen phones.

However, in terms of sales, Motorola's rebooted Razr series has not achieved impressive results, and has been hidden from the spotlight of Samsung and Huawei for the past few years until the release of the Razr 40 series.

moto razr 40 Ultra，图/Rentio PRESS

On June 1, 2023, Motorola released the Razr 40 series, including a Moto Razr 40 priced from 3999 yuan, and a Moto Razr 40 Ultra priced from 5699 yuan. If the former moto razr 40 attracts more users by lowering the price threshold, then the latter moto razr 40 ultra attracts users to buy by increasing the external screen and expanding the use scenarios.

In the end, the trick proved to work. In the current season's market report, Motorola also achieved explosive sales growth with the RAZR 40 series. Considering Motorola's foldable phone lineup, the rapid growth in the first quarter of this year also largely relies on the success of the RAZR 40 series in terms of product strategy.

Actually, it's not hard to understand.

First of all, although users in the domestic market still prefer horizontal folding screen phones with large screens, the North American and European markets prefer small-sized vertical folding screen phones. Secondly, one of the major advantages of vertical folding screen phones is that the cost is lower, and the entry threshold is lower, and the Moto Razr 40 is very good at meeting this.

Photo/Motorola

In addition, vertical folding screen mobile phones do objectively have the problem of small product differentiation, and the essence is that it is difficult for straight mobile phones to form differentiated competition. Therefore, in the last two generations of products, the vertical folding screen mobile phones of each company have basically focused on the experience of the outer screen and the semi-folded state.

In this regard, the moto razr 40 Ultra simply adopts a full-screen design. Although Xiaolei is not very satisfied with the design of the outer screen of the moto razr 40 Ultra, it is undeniable that the external screen with a full-screen design is indeed a good differentiating competition.

Write at the end

Will Motorola's growth continue? This may be a problem left for Lenovo and Motorola. But the crux of the matter is not only Motorola's product strategy for foldable phones, but also about competitors and vertical foldable phones.

Although the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series saw a year-on-year decline in the first quarter of this year, it is still the best-selling vertical folding screen mobile phone series, and the Galaxy Z Flip6, which is expected to be released in July, is also attracting attention.

However, what is more concerning is that more and more manufacturers seem to be lowering the importance of vertical folding screen mobile phones.

Earlier this year, OPPO and vivo were rumored to have abandoned the vertical folding screen mobile phone product line, and the product rhythm on Huawei's side is far inferior to that of horizontal folding screen mobile phones. At the same time, vertical folding screen mobile phones have also been questioned and cannot be separated from straight board products.

This is not to deny Motorola's success, but the so-called "wrong direction" is not an empty word, it may really lead to all efforts in vain, if Motorola wants to continue to fold all in vertical folding on the folding screen, then it must be proven: vertical folding screen mobile phones are really not the same.

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