Folding stocks: demand for flexible smartphones in Russia has increased 1.5 times
Folding smartphones have fallen in price by 20-40% over the year, experts and market participants told Izvestia. This has become one of the factors driving the growth in demand: sales of such devices in Russia have increased by about one and a half times. According to analysts, flexible gadgets partially replace compact tablets, allowing users to purchase one device instead of two. In addition, some buyers are looking for new smartphone formats. Market participants expect that an additional boost to the segment may come from the release of Apple's foldable smartphone, which the company is expected to unveil this fall.
How much sales of folding smartphones have increased
Their sellers told Izvestia about a significant increase in demand for flexible smartphones. According to the combined retail network of Megafon and Yota, sales of folding smartphones increased by 55% over the year. At the same time, 62% of all folding devices sold are flip—compact smartphones, "clamshells" that fold in half horizontally. At the same time, the sales dynamics of folds — smartphones with vertical folding — turned out to be significantly higher: their sales increased by 91% against 40% for flips, according to the company's materials.
"User preferences vary not only in form factor, but also in memory size: in the flip segment, 256 GB models are the most popular ‑ their share is 48%. In the fold category, the 1 TB premium version became the leader, and the 256 GB configuration came in second place," they say.
This is still a niche segment of gadgets, but it is growing faster than the market as a whole, noted Svyaz.ON.
— We see a 35% increase in units in the first two quarters of 2026 compared to the same period last year. The growth in money is more modest — by 10%," they said.
The customer's perception of folding smartphones is changing: this is no longer an experiment, but a fully fledged daily smartphone with its own significant advantages, the company said.
The market for such gadgets has developed into a full-fledged segment with stable trends and clear audience portraits, said Vadim Zimin, Director of Megafon's Sales Development Strategy Department.
— Samsung remains the leader, accounting for 72% of the sales of folding phones in our retail network. In the future, the advent of 5G networks will allow us to unlock the full potential of these devices," he believes.
According to the results of the first half of the year, 53 thousand flexible smartphones were sold in Russia for a total amount of 4.84 billion rubles, M.Video estimated.
"Thus, in just four years, their sales in quantitative terms have more than doubled, and the market volume has grown from 3 billion to 4.84 billion rubles, which has become an absolute record in the entire history of observations," the company's press service says.
According to its representatives, the market is becoming more widespread due to the gradual decrease in the average cost of devices. After a short pause, the segment returned to active development in 2024.
In the first half of the year, Samsung became the leader of the Russian folding phone market, taking first place both in monetary and quantitative terms, M.Video noted. Huawei retained the second place, and the top five largest manufacturers also included Honor, Motorola and Xiaomi.
Sales growth of about 50% year-on-year looks quite realistic, given the expansion of the model range, an increase in the number of manufacturers and a decrease in the average cost of devices, said Anastasia Bezrukova, a leading expert at the Center for Strategic Support of Domestic Technologies.
Why is the demand for clamshells growing?
Sales of clamshells are growing against the background of lower prices for them, experts and market participants interviewed by Izvestia noted. In the "gray" market, such devices have fallen in price by about 40% over the year, and by about 20% in official channels, says Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group. According to him, the increase in interest in such gadgets is due to the search for new smartphone form factors - many users want to try something original instead of classic rectangular devices.
Folding smartphones are becoming more accessible, Svyaz.ON confirmed. More models appeared on the market in the price segment of up to 100 thousand rubles, and more and more manufacturers began to offer devices of this format, the company told Izvestia. They noted that the perception of customers is also changing: a folding smartphone is no longer perceived as an experimental technology, but is becoming a full-fledged everyday device with its own advantages.
Clamshells have fallen in price by 20-30%, which is primarily due to the entry of new Chinese brands into the market, increased price competition and noticeable discounts on models of previous generations, Anastasia Bezrukova believes. This has become one of the key factors of demand growth, along with improved design reliability and the fact that a folding smartphone has ceased to be perceived as an exclusively image-based gadget, she added.
According to Anton Fomin, head of retail projects at Marvel Distribution, in 2025, the share of folding devices ranged from 0.5–1% of the total number of smartphones sold. Now this indicator is showing growth.
The combined company Wildberries & Russ expects an increase in demand for flexible smartphones after the release of Apple's clamshell, which is scheduled to be announced in September.
"Many manufacturers want to get ahead of the company and introduce their competitor in advance, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 8," Anton Fomin added.
According to him, Apple plans to set the price for its folding smartphone in the range of $ 1.8 thousand to $ 2.5 thousand. Chinese and Korean manufacturers, who previously independently determined the pricing policy in the segment of folding smartphones, will have to take into account the new guideline. Thus, a kind of price anchor may be formed, from which other brands will have to build on when developing their own strategy.
Three to five years ago, folding devices were not yet convenient enough for the mass user. However, now the market is gradually changing: the idea of carrying a compactly folded tablet in your pocket was appreciated by both manufacturers and buyers, he concluded.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
