Huawei Plans ‘Trifold’ Phone Launch Hours After Apple Event

Huawei has announced a product launch within hours of Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event next week, setting up the next head-to-head battle between the two firms, as the Shenzhen-based tech giant challenges the iPhone maker for share in the Chinese smartphone market.

The announcement for Huawei’s event on Tuesday, 10 September, features a Z-shaped image and the company is believed to be planning to unveil the world’s first production-ready dual-hinged folding smartphone, known as a trifold.

Richard Yu Chengdong, chair of Huawei’s consumer business group, said on Weibo the company would show its “most leading, innovative and disruptive product”, saying it was an “epoch-making product” that involved five years of development.

Yu has been photographed in public several times using such a device in what are apparently intentional leaks.

Trifold launch

The company is also reportedly planning an electric vehicle launch under its Aito brand, a collaboration with carmaker Seres.

Apple’s event is scheduled for Monday, 9 September, but because China is 15 hours ahead of California the two events will take place on the same day in China.

At its event Apple is expected to launch its AI-powered iPhone 16 devices, in a bid to drive upgrades.

Apple has been pitching its AI plans since early this year, and the announcements have helped drive its stock price to record levels, restoring its position as the most valuable US-listed company ahead of Microsoft, Nvidia and Google parent Alphabet.

But the company has struggled in the key China smartphone market, with Huawei driving it out of the top five vendors there in the quarter ended in July.

Foldables lead

For the first time in history, the top five smartphone sellers in China in that quarter were all domestic companies, researchers said.

Huawei’s fortunes have been driven by its Mate 60 flagship, announced last summer, with a high-end, domestically produced chip, which was created in spite of US sanctions on both Huawei and its chip-manufacturing partner SMIC.

Huawei has also been the top seller of foldable smartphones in China for the past two quarters.

Honor, a Huawei spin-off, trails Huawei in China but took the top spot for foldables in Western Europe in the most recent quarter, Canalys said.