Samsung’s Foldables Are Already Losing Ground In The US, And The Apple iPhone Fold Hasn’t Even Launched Yet

Samsung had a huge first-mover advantage when it launched the Galaxy Fold back in 2019. Over the years, however, that advantage has largely evaporated, courtesy of a litany of fairly iterative, relatively boring updates to its foldable lineup, so much so that Samsung is now losing its market share to Google and Motorola in the US and the broader North America, as per a new report from Counterpoint Research. What's worse, Samsung is experiencing this regression when Apple's much-anticipated response - in the form of the iPhone Fold - has yet to materialize.

Samsung is already ceding ground in the foldables arena to upstarts such as Google and Motorola, while the Apple iPhone Fold waits in the proverbial hypogeum

Counterpoint Research has just published an interesting report, replete with the following striking observations for the North American market:

1. Between 2024 and 2025, Motorola's share of the North American foldable market increased from 30.1 percent to 44.1 percent.
2. In the same timeframe, Samsung lost its market share, which declined from 65.6 percent in 2024 to 50.9 percent in 2025.
3. During this period, Google experienced a more modest bout of growth, with its market share increasing by just 0.7 percent.

As we noted in the preamble, Samsung is ceding its market share dominance at a time when the yearly update cadence for its foldables has largely turned into a litany of bland iterations. Take the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8, whose only differentiating factors this time around might relate to the reintroduction of support for an S Pen and a markedly reduced inner display crease, though the latter is no longer as astounding a development given the just-announced Oppo Find N6 and its near-flawless foldable display.

What's more, Samsung's regression is occurring at a time when the Apple iPhone Fold is currently waiting in the proverbial hypogeum and gearing up for a flamboyant launch in the second half of the ongoing year.

Apple's iPhone Fold is expected to leverage a modified hinge mechanism made out of 'liquid metal.' Moreover, in order to minimize the display crease, Apple is reportedly mulling sandwiching the actual display layer between a dual layer of UTG/UFG (Ultra-Thin Glass/Ultra-Thin Flexible Glass) to prevent the mechanical wear-and-tear from repeated contact with the hinge mechanism and to better distribute the stress during the folding process.

Apple will also reportedly apply a color filter - called the CoE or Color Filter on Encapsulation - onto the protective encapsulation layer of the iPhone Fold's OLED panel, rendering the resulting displays thinner, lighter, and much more efficient. 

Under a CoE regime, the more conventional, thick circular polarizer layer is replaced with a thinner, directly deposited color filter layer. When combined with a black pixel definition layer (PDL), the combo results in significantly higher light transmittance and reduced power consumption. Of course, for a foldable, thinner displays result in markedly reduced stress, which improves longevity and allows for a smaller folding radius.

Given the amount of resources that Apple is investing in its upcoming iPhone Fold, the device is likely to be a stunner. Of course, Samsung is trying to put up some feeble response by developing the rumored Galaxy Wide Fold, which is said to adopt the iPhone Fold's passport-like form factor. Even so, Samsung's response feels more like a slapdash parry rather than an intricately planned 'pincer move.'

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