Folding screen mobile phone why is it on fire

Recently, folding screen phones have been a bit on fire. A series of new products were released intensively, and the price also fell to less than 10,000 yuan. On December 15, 2021, OPPO launched its first folding screen mobile phone, Find N, priced at 7699 yuan. On December 23, Huawei released the folding screen mobile phone P50 treasure box, priced at 8988 yuan, completing the dual-line layout of Mate and P series folding screen mobile phones.

In the current mature smart phone market, folding screen mobile phones are a good marketing hotspot, breaking the state of "a thousand machines". Is the folding screen phone really "fragrant"? Is it worth buying at the moment? With these questions in mind, the Economic Daily reporter interviewed relevant experts.

Mainstream brands gather

At the end of 2021, folding screen mobile phones ushered in another heating up, and mainstream mobile phone brands almost gathered on this new track. In addition to the brands such as Samsung and Huawei that have already entered the market, as well as the latest OPPO, in March 2021, Xiaomi also released the folding screen mobile phone MIX Flod. In addition, it is certain that Vivo and Honor will soon launch their first folding screen mobile phones.

Liu Xu, general manager of ccid consultant digital economy industry research center, said that from the perspective of the market share of folding screen mobile phones, Huawei currently occupies nearly 70% of the domestic market share, followed by Samsung and Xiaomi; in the international market, it is expected that Samsung's market share will still be about 80% in 2021, firmly occupying the leading position in the global market.

Why did the folding screen mobile phone suddenly catch fire? "This is a new concept that came out after the development of smart phones encountered product bottlenecks." Zhang Yi, CEO of Ai Media Consulting Group, said frankly.

Liu Xu believes that from the perspective of the market, the iteration rhythm of the smart phone market is accelerating, but the leap forward in technology takes time, and mobile phone manufacturers urgently pursue highly differentiated designs. Coming up with products that are advanced and accepted by users has become an important factor for mobile phone manufacturers to lead the future. Just like the full screen of that year, the folding screen comes with "traffic", which is a very good marketing point at this stage.

From the perspective of mobile phone manufacturers, major mobile phone brands are now pursuing high-end. In order to break through the price range, the previous competition was the chip, camera function, screen size and refresh rate, but now in addition to high-end chips, other technologies have been popularized on low-end models, and it is difficult to support the improvement of the "dan position" of the mobile phone brand. As a result, folding screen technology has become an important means for mobile phone brands to "show muscles", coupled with the high pricing of folding screen mobile phones, it has also become synonymous with "high-end".

From the perspective of user needs, electronic consumer product users have been pursuing to enjoy more functions through a smaller volume, especially in the face of large-screen applications such as video and games, and the user's demand for screen size is endless. The introduction of folding screen mobile phones meets this demand and may become the direction of smartphone evolution.

"The major mobile phone manufacturers focus on folding screens, and the deep-seated reason is the development trend of mobile phones themselves." Wang Bin, a senior analyst at Zhongcheng Think Tank, said that mobile phones are developing towards the trend of non-porous integration, and the product form of "folding screen" is an attempt by mobile phone manufacturers to break through the appearance and function limitations of mobile phones. Under the folding screen, the functions of the mobile phone are enlarged, and there are richer application scenarios.

What's new about the new folding screen

In fact, folding screen mobile phones are not the first time they have caught fire. On February 21, 2019, Samsung launched the world's first mass-produced folding screen mobile phone GALAXY Fold. Subsequently, Huawei also released its first folding screen mobile phone. For a time, mobile phone giants have said that they are stepping up the layout of folding screen mobile phones. However, at that time, many experts believed that the domestic "flexible screen" production technology was not yet mature. Today, folding screen mobile phones still face two major bottlenecks, namely screen materials and hinge processes, and the pain points reflected by users are mainly concentrated in screen creases, display failures, cracks, etc., which is also an important reason why folding screen mobile phones are still relatively niche.

"The re-heating of folding screen mobile phones has a lot to do with the progress of supply chain and technology, and these two bottlenecks have been broken." Liu Xu to the newly released OPPO Find N mobile phone as an example of analysis, in terms of hinge, the use of China's self-developed Seiko quasi-vertebral hinge, in the realization of the fit at the same time can be multi-angle stepless hovering, basically to achieve a seamless hidden folding effect; in terms of screen materials, the use of a new 12-layer composite structure and UTG ultra-thin flexible glass, compared to the traditional folding screen, there is a stronger anti-puncture ability, durability enhancement. At the same time, in terms of software, in the past two years, the software adaptation degree of major brands of folding screen mobile phones has also been significantly improved, and interactive operation and multi-task processing have been realized.

In terms of software adaptability, Huawei is more prominent, and its newly released first vertical folding screen mobile phone P50 treasure box, in addition to the innovation of folding form, the matching Hongmeng system is a major highlight. The reporter saw in the on-site display that in the mobile phone interface, the mobile phone icon is located in the center position, and other Hongmeng ecological devices are suspended around, just by holding down the device icon to gently pull the mobile phone icon, you can successfully connect, greatly improving the convenience of the multi-device interconnection experience.

"Compared with the early days, today's folding screen mobile phone technology has made a big breakthrough. The existing folding screen mobile phone hinge uses multi-angle hover folding technology, which can be flexibly opened and closed, and its equipped magnetic support system allows the device to ensure safety when fully folded; the main material of the flexible screen from wear resistance, heat resistance to light transmittance, are qualitative leaps over the previous generation, and can bring better display effects while improving screen reliability. Wang Bin said.

The main gift market

Folding screen mobile phone is so fragrant, is it time to start? Experts suggest waiting.

"The product maturity of folding screen mobile phones still needs to be improved, the price is still high, and it is not a certain direction for the upgrading of smart phone products to be explored." Our research data shows that the main market for folding screen mobile phones is the gift market. Zhang Yi said.

Liu Xu believes that it may take two years for folding screen mobile phone products to mature. From the perspective of market competition pattern, at present, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple and Vivo have not yet entered the game, the market share of manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO is still small, and the two mainstream manufacturers of Samsung and Huawei are still continuously improving their technology and processes to overcome user experience pain points. This is obviously not the market form that a mature product should be. At the same time, the current price of folding screen mobile phones launched by mainstream mobile phone manufacturers is still around 8,000 yuan or even higher, and there is still room for price affinity.

When will the folding screen mobile phone be able to reduce the price again? Experts believe that with the addition of more mobile phone manufacturers and the promotion of the folding screen mobile phone market more active, the price of folding screen mobile phones will be further reduced. On the whole, when the future products are mature and consumers have more diversified choices, it is the best time to start.

Liu Xu said that according to the current pricing level of folding screen mobile phones and the market law of electronic products, price reduction is inevitable, but it will not be soon, and it is expected that next year's folding screen mobile phones will also be dominated by the high-end market. At present, the scale of mass production of folding screen mobile phones is not enough, and the technology is still being explored, and it will take one to two years. With the gradual release of flexible screen production capacity, the continuous reduction of costs and the continuous maturity of technology, the price of folding screen mobile phones will usher in a relatively large decline, and it is recommended that ordinary consumers without special needs start again at that time.

The overall market size of folding screen mobile phones will not be too large. Liu Xu analyzed that the global folding screen mobile phone market size is expected to reach 8 million to 9 million units in 2021. With the entry of more powerful manufacturers such as Apple, the maturity of the supply chain and the outbreak of the demand side, it is expected that the market size of folding screen mobile phones will sprint to 30 million units by 2023. Although compared with the volume of the entire mobile phone market, the folding screen market is minimal, but under the leadership of brands such as Samsung and Huawei, the folding screen mobile phone market has completed consumer cultivation, and more and more people have begun to accept and even pursue this product.

"The domestic folding screen mobile phone market is expected to have only millions of orders of demand, because the folding screen mobile phone is essentially the exploration and attempt of mobile phone manufacturers, with low-frequency use demand in exchange for a breakthrough in product form." Although there are certain defects in the folding screen, the technology accumulated by manufacturers in this product form will not be lost, and it will certainly become an important part of the future form of various electronic products. Wang Bin said. (Economic Daily reporter Huang Xin)