The foldable phone market niche is expanding fast and is not just limited to extremely rich buyers anymore.
Display experts DSCC have published a report on the foldable phone market, looking at ‘Q1 2022’ or January to March this year. It’s been the third-best quarter ever for this type of mobile. It is a big step as this segment of the industry struggled behind in the Christmas period of 2021.
But there’s a market leader in terms of shipments: it’s the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, which went up a 51% market share, beating out the Z Flip 3 (which was second place) and the Huawei P50 Pocket (which was third).
First, clamshells are clearly popular, and it doesn’t really make sense that only Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola are making these devices. Also, Motorolla didn’t put out a foldable in 2022.
We’ll be seeing more companies, like Xiaomi, Honor, and Oppo come up with these.
There’s a big benefit in prices for these phones: Samsung’s Z Flip 3 was positioned as a budget alternative to the Z Fold 3, and that’s because of the sizes. Smaller clamshells don’t require as big screens or as several components as their big siblings, and so cost less to buy.
Also, the three phones that made up 91% of foldable phone sales are some of the rare examples of folding devices that went on sale on a global market. Plenty of devices, like the Honor Magic V, Oppo Find N, and Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold, only went on sale in China, and all those exclusive devices made up less than 9% of the sales.
Hence, companies should not ignore these stats and expand into clam phones to save costs and enter a new market.