Vivo set to launch first foldable smartphone in India, intensify battle with Samsung

Vivo XFlod 3 Pro

The battle for India's foldable smartphone space is heating up. The country’s top brand Vivo is gearing up to launch its latest foldable phone, XFold 3 Pro, which has been made at the Chinese company's new 170-acre factory in Greater Noida.

With its first foldable phone, Vivo is looking to join the ranks of Samsung and Apple in the premium segment. The June 6 launch of the XFold 3 Pro will see Vivo go head-to-head with Korea's Samsung, which leads the premium segment in India and across the world.

The intensifying competition among smartphone brands is expected to drive foldable segment growth to 35 percent year-on-year in 2024.

The XFold 3 Pro would be Vivo's first phone to cost more than Rs 1 lakh.

"The market is promising in the premium segment. Our X series is well-accepted in the market. We feel confident about the foldable category as this phone is not our first-generation device," a Vivo spokesperson told Moneycontrol.

Niche but growing market

Vivo will also compete with its Chinese rivals OnePlus, Oppo, Motorola and Transsion Group's Tecno, which entered India’s foldable market in 2023.

Samsung was the top brand in the foldable space with 79 percent share, followed by OnePlus and Motorola with eight and seven percent market share, respectively, as per Counterpoint Research's January-March 2024 data.

Most of the Chinese brands launched their first foldable smartphones in India market in 2023 and together contributed to 29 percent of foldable shipments in Q1 2024, Counterpoint data showed.

Motorola and Oppo launched only clamshell type form factor, while Tecno has launched both book and clamshell type foldables in India.

"The foldable smartphone is still a very small market in India as it contributed to less than 1 percent of the India smartphone market both in terms of volume and value in Q1 2024. While it is still a niche market, it continues to show double digit growth consistently," Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research said.

"Although Chinese players face a stiff competition from Samsung who is more established player in this segment, we expect further launches of foldables from OEMs other than Samsung in 2024," Pathak added.

Foldable phones face a competition from other premium smartphones especially, Apple iPhones in this price segment. "The trust factor also plays a role when it comes to purchase of a premium priced device like foldable smartphone for which global player like Samsung holds an upper hand," Pathak said.

Since launching the X-series in India, which is its largest market outside China, Vivo's market share in the premium segment has grown from 3 percent in 2020 to 17 percent at the end of 2023, the company said, citing market tracker GFK data.

Vivo is looking to increase its volume share as more consumers look to upgrade their devices this year.

The company is also looking to capitalise on the ongoing premiumisation trend, where consumers move to higher price segments with new purchases, Channana said. He, however, said foldable would continue to be a niche category in the premium segment in India.

The premium segment contributes to just 2 percent of the total volumes in the Indian smartphone market.

"The pricing of our foldable phone will be at par with our rivals despite having better specifications and better form factor. We also want to give a premium experience to customers through an omnichannel approach," the Vivo spokesperson said.

Vivo emerged as India’s top smartphone brand in the January-March quarter of 2024, displacing Korea’s Samsung, which slipped to third place.

Vivo cornered a 19 percent share of the market, driven by its 5G leadership. Xiaomi, another Chinese firm, and Samsung came in second and third with 18.8 percent and 17.5 percent share, market research firm Counterpoint Research said in a report earlier this month.

Factory expansion 

Vivo has proposed an investment of Rs 7,500 crore to double its production capacity from the present 60 million units annually and develop India as a global export hub.

The operationalisation of the Greater Nodia factory marks the completion of phase 1 investment, worth Rs 3,500 crore, a company official said. The factory, which is already making XFold 3 Pro, will be fully functional by the end of June.

Last year, the Chinese firm began exporting India-made smartphones to Bhutan and Malaysia from its old Noida factory, which was already sending shipments to Saudi Arabia and Thailand.