(Yicai) Sept. 9 -- Huawei Technologies will launch its first double-folding smartphone this month, with more than 2 million people requesting to be notified when the device launches on the Chinese telecoms giant's website.

The Huawei Mate XT | Ultimate Design was opened for bookings on Sept. 7, with the number of requests exceeding 2.6 million as of 8.30 a.m. today, Yicai found. Customers are not yet required to make any deposits.

The double-folding phone, which will be released on Sept. 20, will be available in two versions with 16 gigabytes of random-access memory and 512 GB storage and 1 terabyte storage, according to the Shenzhen-based firm's website.

Huawei will hold a launch event for the Mate XT | Ultimate Design tomorrow, when it will likely reveal its price and other details, according to industry insiders. Apple is also scheduled to debut its next-generation iPhone 16 on the same day.

Due to the complexity of making a double-folding screen, the Mate XT | Ultimate Design is predicted to be priced at more than CNY20,000 (USD2,820). Huawei's previous flagship folding phone, the Mate X5, cost CNY16,999 on launch day.

Although China's smartphone market has slowed down recently, folding handsets have become an emerging category and maintained rapid growth. The country's phone shipments rose 9 percent to 71.6 million units last quarter from a year ago, while that of folding devices surged 105 percent to 2.6 million units, according to International Data Corporation.

Huawei took 18.1 percent of China's smartphone market in the second quarter, behind only Vivo Communication Technology's 18.5 percent share, IDC data showed. However, it ranked first in the folding screen phone market with a 41.7 percent share, nearly 18 percentage points ahead of second-placed Vivo.

Compared to single-folding phones, the biggest problems with double-folding models are the device's thickness and hinges' durability, according to Guo Tianxiang, research manager at IDC China.

The thinness of single-folding phones has been similar to standard handsets, while the double-folding model's thickness and weight will be significantly higher, Guo noted. Quality issues are more likely to occur after adding one more hinge, with the creases to be more obvious, Guo said.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev