Honor is going to will launch a foldable flip phone this year, as per the company’s CEO. Honor flip phone venturing in the premium smartphone market would mark the Chinese technology firm’s first into the vertical-folding style of smartphone. Flip phone has been popularized by brands like Samsung and Motorola.
The smartphones with displays that bend are called “Foldables”. There are two styles right now on the market. The smartphones that fold like a book and those that fold vertically like an old school flip phone but without a visible hinge.
Honor flip phone launch
The move to launch a flip foldable is in line with Honor’s push into the premium end of the market where it’s looking to challenge companies like Samsung and Apple.
“This year we are preparing for the flip phone launch — now that we are internally in the final stage,” as per George Zhao, CEO of Honor.
“We are very positive about foldables for the future.”
Honor foldable phones are already launched and available in the market. The latest one is the Honor Magic V2 that it launched last year. But all of Honor’s current foldables are the book style of the folding device.
Entry into premium smartphone market
The entry into flip foldables will expose Honor to a different price point. The flip style of phones, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 are often priced cheaper than the horizontal-style folding devices.
Foldables are seen as high-end devices in the world of smartphones. Sales for premium smartphones, those over $600, likely grew in 2023 while the overall market declined, according to Counterpoint Research. This is one reason that Honor is targeting the high-end market.
Sales of foldable phones are set to rise 40% year-on-year to 22 million units in 2024, according to Counterpoint Research.
Honor’s focusing on international markets
Honor, a spin-off from Huawei in 2020 as a result of U.S. sanctions, has sought to thrive as an independent brand. Honor found early success in China and its focus is now on growing in international markets, where it doesn’t yet feature in the top 5 players globally.
Zhao said his hope in the next three-to-five years is that sales volumes overseas exceed China.
Honor looking into AI
Like most device makers at MWC, Honor touted the potential of AI.
For Zhao, the value of the technology will come when a device is able to anticipate what you’d like to do next.
“In the future, Honor’s strategy is AI to reconstruct the user interaction. It will be intent-based, the user interaction. So maybe when you interact with your phone, it can understand what is your requirement,” Zhao said.
At MWC, Honor showed off an AI-powered feature on its Magic 6 Pro handset that can track the user’s eyes.
The company also showed off a demonstration of a chatbot built on Meta’s Llama 2 AI model.
Honor IPO
Last year, Honor announced its intention to go public. Zhao said preparations are being made for the IPO but there is no final timing or destination for the listing.
