Chinese technology firm Honor will launch a foldable flip phone this year, CEO George Zhao told CNBC at Mobile World Congress 2024. It marks the company’s first foray into the vertical-folding style of smartphone that has been popularized by brands like Samsung and Motorola.
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BARCELONA — Honor will launch a foldable flip phone this year, the company’s CEO told CNBC, marking the Chinese technology firm’s first foray into the vertical-folding style of smartphone that has been popularized by brands like Samsung and Motorola.
“Foldables” refer to smartphones with displays that bend. There are two styles right now on the market — smartphones that fold like a book and those that fold vertically like an old school flip phone but without a visible hinge.
The move to launch a flip foldable is in line with Honor’s push into the premium end of the market where it’s looking to challenge companies like Samsung and Apple.
“This year we are preparing for the flip phone launch — now that we are internally in the final stage,” George Zhao, CEO of Honor, told CNBC in an exclusive interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“We are very positive about foldables for the future.”
Honor already has a number of foldable phones on the market. The latest one is the Honor Magic V2 that it launched last year. But all of Honor’s current foldables are the book style of the folding device.
Honor already has a number of smartphones on the market that fold like a book, such as the Magic V2 that was launched in July 2023 shown here. The Chinese tech company is now preparing to launch a vertical-folding style smartphone, its CEO George Zhao told CNBC at the Mobile World Congress.
Honor
The entry into flip foldables will expose Honor to a different price point. The flip style of phones, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 are often priced cheaper than the horizontal-style folding devices.
Foldables are seen as high-end devices in the world of smartphones. Sales for premium smartphones, those over $600, likely grew in 2023 while the overall market declined, according to Counterpoint Research. This is one reason that Honor is targeting the high-end market.
Sales of foldable phones are set to rise 40% year-on-year to 22 million units in 2024, according to Counterpoint Research. But Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, said demand for the flip foldable may be slowing because “expectations of aggressive pricing of the flip form factor has been difficult.”
“I believe this will create some market gap for newer vendors to enter or expand in the flip segment and test out the market.”
Zhao said his hope in the next three-to-five years is that sales volumes overseas exceed China.
Honor’s AI push
Like most device makers at MWC, Honor touted the potential of AI.
For Zhao, the value of the technology will come when a device is able to anticipate what you’d like to do next.
For example, you may get a message from a friend to meet for dinner and the device will be able to anticipate whether you want to open the name of the restaurant in a mapping app or reply to the message.
“In the future, Honor’s strategy is AI to reconstruct the user interaction. It will be intent-based, the user interaction. So maybe when you interact with your phone, it can understand what is your requirement,” Zhao said.
The company also showed off a demonstration of a chatbot built on Meta’s Llama 2 AI model.
Last year, Honor announced its intention to go public. Zhao said preparations are being made for the initial public offering but there is no final timing or destination for the listing.
Technology stocks bounced Tuesday after three rocky trading sessions, spurred by rising optimism that President Donald Trump could potentially negotiate tariff deals with world leaders.
The sector is coming off a wild trading session after speculation that the White House could potentially delay tariffs fueled volatile swings. Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Nvidia finished higher, while Apple, Microsoft and Tesla posted losses.
Trump’s wide-sweeping tariff plans have sparked violent turbulence over the last three trading sessions. Trading volume on Monday hit its highest in nearly two decades. Technology stocks gyrated after the Nasdaq Composite posted its worst week in five years and the Magnificent Seven group lost $1.8 trillion in market value over two trading sessions.
Chipmakers were excluded from the recent tariffs, but have come under pressure on worries that higher duties could diminish demand for products they are used in and slow the economy. The sector is also expected to see tariffs further down the road.
Elsewhere, Broadcom surged 9% after announcing a $10 billion share buyback plan through the end of the year. Marvell Technology also bounced more than 9% after agreeing to sell its auto ethernet business for $2.5 billion in cash to Infineon Technologies.
Glen Tullman, chairman and chief executive officer at Livongo Health Inc., speaks during the 2015 Bloomberg Technology Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, June 16, 2015.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Digital health startup Transcarent on Tuesday announced it completed its acquisition of Accolade in a deal valued at roughly $621 million.
Transcarent first announced the acquisition in January, and the company said it has received all necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals to carry out the transaction. Accolade shareholders received $7.03 per share in cash, and its common stock will no longer trade on the Nasdaq, according to a release.
“Adding Accolade’s people and capabilities will significantly enhance our existing offerings,” Transcarent CEO Glen Tullman said in a statement. “We’re creating anentirely new way to experience health and care. We are truly better together.”
Transcarent offers at-risk pricing models to self-insured employers to help their workers quickly access care and navigate benefits. As of May, the company had raised around $450 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. Transcarent also earned a spot on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list last year.
More CNBC health coverage
Accolade offers care delivery, navigation and advocacy services. The company went public during the Covid pandemic in 2020 as investors began pouring billions of dollars into digital health, but the stock tumbled in the years following.
Accolade is the latest in a string of digital health companies to exit the public markets as the sector struggles to adjust to a more muted growth environment.
Transcarent said the executive leadership team will report to Tullman and includes representatives from both organizations. Accolade’s Kristen Bruzek will serve as executive vice president of care delivery operations, for instance.
Tullman is no stranger to overseeing major deals in digital health. He previously helmed Livongo, which was acquired by the virtual-care provider Teladoc in a 2020 agreement that valued the company at $18.5 billion.
General Catalyst and Tullman’s 62 Ventures led the acquisition’s financing, with additional participation from new and existing investors, the release said. The companies also leveraged cash from their combined balance sheet, and JP Morgan led the debt financing.
A drone operator loads a Walmart package into Zipline’s P1 fixed-wing drone for delivery to a customer home in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 30, 2023.
Bunee Tomlinson
Zipline, a startup that delivers everything from vaccines to ice cream via electric autonomous drones, expanded its service to the Dallas area on Tuesday through a partnership with Walmart.
In Mesquite, Texas, about 15 miles east of Dallas, Walmart customers can sign up to receive orders within 30 minutes, delivered on Zipline’s newest unmanned aerial vehicles, known as P2 Zips.
The drones are capable of carrying up to eight pounds worth of cargo within a 10-mile radius, and can land a package on a space as small as a table or doorstep. The company, which ranked 21st on CNBC’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list, plans to expand soon in the Dallas metropolitan area.
Zipline CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said P2 Zips have “dinner plate-level” accuracy. They employ lift and cruise propellers and feature a fixed wing that helps them maneuver quietly, even through rain or gusts of wind up to 45 miles per hour.
In the delivery process, a P2 Zip will hover around 300 feet above ground level and dispatch a mini-aircraft with a container called the delivery zip, which descends on a long tether and moves into place using fan-like thrusters before setting down and allowing package retrieval.
Both the P2 Zip and the delivery zip use cameras, other sensors and Nvidia chips to determine what’s happening in the environment around them, and to avoid obstacles while making a delivery.
In March 2025, Zipline announced that its drones have logged more than 100 million autonomous miles of flight to-date, a number equivalent to flying more than 4,000 loops around the planet, or 200 lunar round trips, the company said in a video to mark the milestone.
Since it began operations in 2016, Rinaudo Cliffton said, Zipline has completed around 1.5 million deliveries, far more than competitors in the West. Wing, a Zipline rival focused on residential deliveries, has reported more than 450,000 deliveries since 2012.
Zipline initially focused on logistics in health care, making deliveries by drone to clinics and hospitals in nations where infrastructure sometimes impeded timely access to life-saving medicines, blood, vaccines and personal protective equipment. The company, valued at $4.2 billion in a 2023 financing round, is now making deliveries in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Japan and the U.S., and expanded well beyond hospitals and clinics.
In addition to Walmart, customers include Sweetgreen, Chipotle and other quick-serve restaurants, as well as health clinics and hospital systems such as Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic.
Zipline’s launch in Mesquite comes days after President Donald Trump’s announcement of widespread tariffs roiled markets on concern that companies would face rising costs and a slowdown in consumers spending. Rinaudo Cliffton said he doesn’t anticipate massive impediments to Zipline’s business, as its drones are built in the U.S., with manufacturing and testing in South San Francisco.