A folding smartphone and a connected ring: how Honor will challenge Samsung

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Honor is back. The former Huawei sub-brand, after having successfully made a comeback in China, is setting out to conquer the European market. And today, its objective is to challenge the market leaders, including Samsung. Present in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, Honor CEO George Zhao told CNBC that the brand is currently preparing a competitor to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip.

As a reminder, Honor already markets smartphone-tablet hybrids, similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold. And its latest model has also stood out, thanks to an exceptional design. But this year, Honor will also offer a folding flip smartphone.

The announcement is important, since this type of folding smartphone, more compact and more affordable, generally sells better. And thanks to its future model, Honor could increase its market share in folding smartphones, a segment which is currently largely dominated by Samsung.

A connected ring is also in the pipeline

And that's not all. While Samsung recently teased its future connected ring, which should be released this year, Honor announces that it is working on a similar product. “[…] in the future you will be able to have the Honor ring”, the boss of the Chinese brand told CNBC.

At the moment, we don't have the details. But it should be remembered that the advantage of the connected ring format is that it makes it possible to provide health and well-being monitoring systems on a more discreet product than connected watches. Moreover, rumors already suggest that Apple is also working on a ring.

Honor: very strong growth in Europe

Currently, Honor smartphone shipments in Europe are already on the rise. In the last quarter of 2023, Honor was in fifth place on Canalys' European ranking, with a market share of 1% and 1.1 million devices shipped during this 3-month period. But the most interesting thing is that, compared to the last quarter of 2022, Honor smartphone shipments in Europe increased by 116%.

Brandon Gurney, research analyst at Canalys, explained that with this strong growth, Honor has demonstrated its potential, as it prepares for an IPO. Other brands making huge progress in Europe include Motorola, whose shipments increased by 73% last quarter.

• Present at MWC, Honor announces that it will launch a folding flip smartphone like Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip
• An Honor connected ring is also in the pipeline
• In the last quarter of 2023, Honor was in the Top 5 smartphone brands in Europe
• And its shipments increased by 116% during this 3 month period

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