Huawei boasts about foldable phones, but sales tell a different story

"It's thinner, bigger and faster than the competition" — Richard Yu, Huawei's consumer business CEO, at the 2019 launch of the Mate X foldable phone.

"We developed a prototype foldable phone with a design similar to the Galaxy Fold, but scrapped it because the design was just not good enough" — Yu, in a 2019 interview with Business Insider.

"The only company that can surpass Huawei in the tri-fold market is Huawei itself" — Yu, at the unveiling of the Mate XTs tri-fold phone ahead of Samsung's tri-fold launch in 2025.

Huawei has long taken aim at Samsung's foldable lineup with a string of bold provocations. The Chinese tech giant drew attention by unveiling the passport-style wide foldable Pura X Max before Samsung or Apple, but its actual sales have fallen well short of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 8.

With Apple now entering the foldable market in earnest and competition intensifying, analysts say expanding Huawei's foldable sales will be an uphill battle.

According to Chinese tech outlet Kuai Technology, citing data from a local market research blogger, the Huawei Pura X Max — launched in April — had sold about 1.02 million units through early this month.

That figure is roughly on par with Samsung's domestic pre-order sales for the Fold 8 in its first week alone, which stood at about 1.01 million units. Huawei's roughly six months of cumulative sales match what Samsung moved in a single week.

The Pura X Max is a passport-ratio wide foldable similar in form to the Galaxy Z Fold 8. It was the world's first landscape-oriented foldable phone, beating both Samsung and Apple to market.

Huawei Executive Director Yu Chengdong claimed on his social media earlier this month that when the company was preparing to launch the wide foldable, it learned that an American rival was developing a similar device. "This wide foldable phone originated with Huawei, and we started development earlier," he wrote.

Huawei may have claimed the title of world's first wide foldable phone maker, but its path in the foldable market is set to grow more difficult. With Apple joining Samsung in the segment, industry watchers expect a two-horse race between the two to solidify.

Counterpoint Research projects that Apple will capture a 25 percent share of the global foldable phone market this year, placing second — catching up to Huawei's full-year share of 22 percent in just two months of sales. Samsung Electronics is forecast to lead with a 38 percent share.