The decline in the global economy is still having an impact on the demand for mobile phones. This year’s market size will likely be fewer than 1.2 billion units, according to TrendForce. As the market is near saturation, foldable phones will take centre stage. According to TrendForce, shipments of foldable phones would increase by 55% yearly to reach 19.8 million units in 2023. This is an increase of about 5 million units from 12.8 million units in 2022.
The survey claims that the high price is mostly to blame for the poor growth in the market share of foldable phones. Since Huawei debuted the Mate X2 in 2021, the market is now seldom willing to pay above $2000 for a foldable phone. In order to reduce part prices, brands and part suppliers are constantly creating innovative techs.
For instance, the OLED organic part takes about 23% of the total cost of the OLED panels used in foldable phones. The price will be plunging as more suppliers of parts join the market to compete. The price of the hinge, another important part, has also started to be reduced from as much as $120. To boost sales, the total folding mobile phone’s cost pressure will be eased.
Many Chinese brands joins the foldable phone market
Back in 2019 and as far as the end of 2020, Huawei was the only Chinese brand with a foldable phone. However, as the months rolled by, many Chinese brands like OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honour have joined the foldable phone market. The market is very positive towards Huawei’s Pocket S’s design and price which was released in 2022. This device only supports 4G but it has so far not stopped users from preferring the device.
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Huawei’s market share was roughly 10% the previous year, and this year it is predicted to be close to 20%. In the market for folding mobile phones, more Chinese brands have also attained market shares ranging from 3 to 5%. Sales are expected to rise even more if they can launch more folding screen phones to global markets.
Transsion, a company that has long been active in the African market, also launched its first foldable phone this year. The Phantom V Fold is a folding phone.
Google joins the race
The recently released Google Pixel Fold, which has a 7.6-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 2208 x 1840 and a 5.8-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 2092 x 1080 on the outside screen, is currently the focus of the market. This is because it is the latest foldable phone in the market and the first from Google. The Google Pixel Fold will start at $1799 but its sales will commence in June. We will have to wait and see how well this device will sell.
Samsung continues to make progress
The most recent version of Galaxy Fold 5/Flip 5 is rumoured to be released towards the end of July and sold in August. Samsung has many generations because it (with Huawei) was the the first to enter the folding mobile phone industry. For this reason, its R&D and production tech is ahead of other brands. The size of the display screen may be higher, clearly differentiating this generation of products from the previous one in terms of look design. Currently, there are 13 million folding mobile phones on the market, with a market share of roughly 70%.
TrendForce projects that the market penetration rate of foldable phones will be about 1.7% in 2023. It also claims that the cost and appearance will be optimized year by year and may exceed 5% in 2027. This will only happen if more brands join in the release foldable phones. At the moment, Samsung is ahead in the foldable phone market while Huawei and Motorola follows behind.
