Honor is planning to release its second foldable next year, and vice versa Honor Magic V, the company is indeed expected to release the device outside of China. Honor CEO George Zhao confirmed the plans in an interview ledge Ahead of this year’s IFA trade show in Berlin and said that the company expects to launch its next foldable device in the first quarter of next year.

“We have decided that next year, in Q1, we will bring our latest foldable smartphone to international markets,” Zhao said. The CEO didn’t confirm any specifics or details for the new device, but indicated that key areas of focus for Honor’s foldables are making them thinner, lighter and more affordable.

Will release in the first quarter of next year, almost a year after Honor launched its first foldable device Honor Magic V, The company is one of several Chinese smartphone brands that have recently launched foldables, along with oppo find no, Xiaomi’s Mix FoldAnd Huawei’s Mate X devices,

However, surprisingly a large proportion of these devices remain exclusive to the Chinese market. In the West, only Samsung and Huawei have made serious foldable pushes, and among them, it’s arguably only Samsung’s devices that have been worth considering, Huawei sales continue Without Google’s apps and services As a result of ongoing US sanctions. The result is that Chinese customers have a wide array of foldable devices to choose from.

Image: Honor

When I asked Zhao why Honor and other brands are prioritizing China for their foldables, he said that a large proportion of the popular apps in the country are optimized for foldable devices. This is because China has a unique Android app market dominated by domestically produced apps like WeChat, and even the country has a special version of TikTok (named Douyin). Status makes it easier to collaborate with developers to optimize their apps for the new form factors.

“We have a very good relationship [China-based] app providers,” explains Zhao, who adds that the relationship means developers are more willing to work with Honor to optimize their apps for foldables. Unlike the rest of the world, where users are able to access the global Google Play Store. While downloading Android apps from the Store, users in China access them through several app stores that are specific to the market.

But with Google’s recent initiatives to improve the Android experience on larger-screen devices, Zhao believes international markets are catching on. For starters, the recent Google Released Android 12L, a new version of its mobile operating system optimized for tablets and foldables. it is also working Optimize your own apps for the big screen and says it is working with third party developers Enhance the experience of using apps like TikTok, Zoom and Facebook, “Google is making a lot of effort in this direction,” says Zhao.

One place where Honor still doesn’t plan to sell its foldables is in the United States. Although the company has a Push in the US market half a decade agoFor now, it is focusing its limited resources on regions such as Europe, where it has more current presence and more experience.

In the more immediate future, Honor continues to build a family of devices in several different product categories. Today saw the global launch of its latest midrange smartphone, the honor 70 (see our full review here), along with a new tablet and laptop. east is 12-inch Honor Pad 8 TabletWhich one? Launched in China earlier this yearand there is also 14-inch MagicBook 14 LaptopWhich is powered by a 12th generation Intel Core H-series processor and can optionally be specified with an Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU.

After years of looking at the international market for Samsung-dominated foldables, next year, we may finally see some real competition. Well, as long as the CEOs of other tech brands in China are impressed by Google’s efforts to improve Android app support for tablets and foldables.