Honor, a leading provider of smart devices in China, will step up push to achieve breakthroughs in foldable smartphones, which are expected to continue their rise in the coming years, a senior company executive said.

The comments came after Honor announced the China launch of its latest foldable smartphone series Magic Vs in Shenzhen, Guangdong province on Wednesday. Priced from 7,499 yuan ($104.8) in China, Magic Vs are part of Honor’s broader push to expand its presence in the high-end smartphone market.

Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said “The Magic Vs will be our very first foldable flagship to debut in the overseas markets and we are confident that it will deliver huge advancements, transforming how people all around the world use their smartphones.”

According to Zhao, foldable smartphones, which have witnessed rapid growth among all handsets during the COVID-19 pandemic, are expected to continue their rise in the coming years.

“In the future, I believe that 20 to 30 percent of smartphones above 5000 yuan will be foldable smartphones, and this proportion will grow over time,” Zhao said.

The comments came as major smartphone makers are ramping up efforts to expand their presence in the burgeoning foldables segment, in an effort to revive the larger smartphone market that has been mired in a sales slump amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global foldable smartphone shipments will likely grow 73 percent year-on-year from 9 million units in 2021 to 16 million units this year, and the figure is projected to rise to 26 million units in 2023, according to a report from market research company Counterpoint Research.

Foldable smartphones are still the fastest-growing smartphone product category this year, and the strong growth defies current economic headwinds as the high-end phone market shows resilience and a steady demand, said the report.

Global consultancy International Data Corp estimated that worldwide shipments of foldable phones will reach 41.5 million units in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 38.7 percent from 2021 to 2026.