(Yicai) Feb. 20 -- China's shipments of foldable smartphones achieved the fourth straight year of doubled growth last year due to new gadget releases despite a marketwide slowdown, according to an American tech consultancy.

Shipments rose by 115 percent to seven million units in 2023 from the year before, IDC wrote in a report today. In the fourth quarter, the number reached 2.8 million phones, up almost 150 percent from a year earlier.

The rapid growth in the last quarter was caused by new product launches by domestic manufacturers Huawei Technologies, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, and Honor, per IDC. As phonemakers invest more in research and development, hardware is becoming mature and software is optimized for better user experience, it added.

Maturing technologies also mean that prices are coming down. Last year, a decreasing share of 66.5 percent of foldable smartphones on the market cost over USD1,000, down from the earlier 81 percent. Flip handsets are more affordable, driving down the prices of all foldable smartphones, IDC noted.

Huawei was China’s No. 1 maker of foldable smartphones last year with a 37.4 percent market share due to strong sales of Mate X5. Oppo ranked second with an 18.3 percent share, followed by Honor with 17.7 percent. South Korea’s Samsung came in fourth with 11 percent and Vivo Communication Technology had 9.7 percent.

Fresh innovations are breathing life into a sluggish market. Shipments of all types of smartphones in China slid to a 10-year low of 271 million units last year, down 5 percent from the previous year, per statistics from IDC.

Editor: Emmi Laine