The smartphone race in Mainland China in Q1-24 couldn't have been fighter between the top 5 OEMS as noted in the Canalyis chart below. While foldable smartphones may be irrelevant in global statistics overall, they're mountainous in Mainland China. All four of China's smartphone players offer book and/or flip smartphones. Only Apple is the odd man out. The lack of a foldable is one the reasons for Apple landing in fifth spot in Q1-2024.   

In Q1 2024, a Counterpoint report showed that Huawei's foldable smartphone shipments grew  a whopping 257% to stand at 35% of the global foldable market in contrast to Samsung at 23%. That, to be sure, helped them put Apple in the basement.

On July 10^th, Samsung  launched new foldables (book and flip styles) yet promised a new thinner model that is scheduled to arrive in Q4 with a larger 8" inside display.

Samsung is behind China's Huawei and now Honor who just released their next gen book-style foldable, the "Magic V3" with overall specs laid out in the graphic below.

(Click on Image to Greatly Enlarge)

Chinese media reported today that Honor unveiled its new foldable smartphone, the 'Magic V3' last Friday, days after Samsung's new Galaxy 6 Fold. Honor introduced the new product as being 9.2mm thick and 226g versus the Galaxy Z Fold 6 at 12.1mm thick and 239g in weight. This is why Samsung wants to push their thinner model out in Q4 so as to counter Honor's Magic V3. For more specifications, check out Honor's phone site.

Of course this only puts more pressure on Apple to get into the foldables market as soon as possible or be stuck as the #5 player in Mainland China for the foreseeable future.

Then again, Apple's new iPhone SE 4 could provide them with a boost to counter the rise in foldables – sometime in mid-2025. For Apple, it can't come soon enough.