[Mobile China] there are not too many fireworks, less than a little New Year's atmosphere, 2022 quietly arrived. Looking back at the past few years, our society has experienced a difficult baptism, in the difficulties and even hardships, the change has also come, they grow in all corners, born out of various industries.
"Kanjian" 2022: Folding screen mobile phone "outbreak" is about to sell to 5,000 is not a dream?
In the technology industry, the concept of meta-universe is expanding wildly, the plot continues to 2022 without stopping; in the Internet industry, live streaming with goods continues to upgrade and increase, with the fall of head anchors such as Via, the reshuffle trend is obvious; in the automotive industry, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continues to climb, the global electric vehicle overlord Tesla officially launched a "luxury attack" to BBA, under the fierce battlefield, consumers are fishermen and profiteers, but the problem of charging difficulty and short endurance is also imminent... How to better grasp the new trend of the pan-tech circle in 2022? CNMO joined hands with the Zhiche Faction to launch the "Kanjian 2022" series of reports. In this article, we will focus on the topic of "the development direction of folding screen mobile phones".
In the ever-changing mobile phone circle, how will the development of folding screen mobile phones this year? Next, let's discuss it with mobile phone China.
2021: Folding screen mobile phone "first year"
At the beginning of 2021, Huawei's new folding screen flagship Matex2 and Xiaomi folding screen mobile phone MIX FOLD have been released, followed by the Samsung GalaxyZ Flip35G and Galaxy Z Fold35G.
And just in the last month of 2021 that just ended, the news about folding screen mobile phones in the mobile phone circle can be said to be endless, first there was OPPO's first folding screen mobile phone Find N debut, and then Huawei's first vertical folding screen mobile phone Huawei P50 Pocket debut, this is not over, glory also rushed to the tail of 2021 Shangguan announced its first folding screen mobile phone Magic V, wave after wave, so that friends who are looking forward to folding screen mobile phones are boiling with blood.
Huawei P50Pocket
For such an active market, some securities analysts pointed out that 2021 is the first year of folding screen mobile phones, and the sales of folding screen mobile phones reached 7.5 million.
2022: Folding screen mobile phone "outbreak of the first year"
Today, the concept of folding screens can be described as undiminished. We can see that more and more mobile phone manufacturers have entered the folding screen mobile phone track, making the track become congested, and the congestion at the same time also shows that the folding screen mobile phone market is full of huge potential.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3
For this vibrant market, several institutions predict the development of the field. Previously, Mobile China learned from the research and research agency DSCC that it is expected that the shipment of folding smartphones will reach 3.8 million units in the fourth quarter, an increase of more than 450% over the same period; in addition, Counterpoint also predicts that shipments are expected to climb to 53.4 million units by 2025.
Such a good market, in addition to the mobile phone manufacturers that have entered the game last year, Apple and other companies that have not yet been involved are also expected to join, and the latest revelations from analysts said that Apple is expected to launch a foldable iPhone as early as 2023. Moreover, some experts said that folding screen mobile phones will also usher in a year of blowout outbreak in 2022, and predict that the total shipment of folding screen mobile phones in 2022 is expected to be close to 20 million units, becoming a new growth point for future smart phones.
Horizontal or vertical? Inside fold or outside fold?
Folding mobile phone is achieved by hinging, flexible screen and other bendable parts, compared with ordinary smart phones, folding screen mobile phones have the characteristics of large display area and large number of screens. At present, we can see that the folding mobile phones on the market are mainly divided into three folding forms: horizontal inward folding, horizontal outer folding, and vertical folding.
Horizontal folding is the most common way, of which horizontal folding is generally divided into inner screen and outer screen, the outer screen is suitable for the use of traditional mobile phones, the inner screen provides a larger display area, so that a mobile phone seems to be deformed into a tablet, more suitable for commercial personnel; horizontal folding of the mobile phone display area is large, suitable for games, movies, although the display is more convenient, but easy to damage; vertical folding of the mobile phone when unfolded, the size is similar to the traditional smart phone, easy to carry after folding, and suitable for most user scenarios.
OPPO Find N
In the future, the folding method of folding mobile phones is generally the above three, after all, folding mobile phones are still in the development stage, and there are no other technological breakthroughs to replace them. Specifically, which folding scheme will be more popular in the market, but also need to look at the positioning of the mobile phone, high-end business mobile phones may choose more horizontal folding, the price is more inexpensive may be biased towards vertical folding. Of course, the crease that users are very concerned about will also tend to be hidden under the blessing of technological development.
In addition, no matter which folding method, folding mobile phones also have an appearance pain point is thick, "thick" at the same time often bring "heavy" problems, heavy mobile phones are often not the public's preferred choice, in this regard, the major mobile phone manufacturers also pay attention to this problem, in the development of mobile phones as far as possible to make the mobile phone thin and light, balance the weight and the feeling of both hands, which glory in the introduction of its Magic V, it emphasized its "light north." I believe that in 2022 and beyond, the folding screen mobile phones that are "born" will be more lightly insured
Price challenge 5000 yuan?
For many people, folding screen mobile phones are not the first choice to buy new mobile phones, and the high price makes most people think that folding screen mobile phones are toys for rich people to chase trends. Before December last year, the price of folding screen mobile phones on the market was basically more than 10,000 yuan, in addition to the high price, consumers generally believe that it is not as cost-effective as the traditional high-end smartphones at the same price, and the practicality is not so good.
Xiaomi Mi MIX FOLD
We understand that people don't pay attention to overpriced mobile phone products. According to media data, consumers' attention to mobile phones above 5,000 yuan in 2021 is only 10.21%. Therefore, the excessive price has also become a major problem that "hinders" the development of folding screen mobile phones.
However, in the past 12 months, the price of folding screen mobile phones newly released by Huawei and OPPO has dropped below 10,000 yuan, of which the price of OPPO Find N has dropped to less than 8,000 yuan, which also means that the supply chain is ready for the arrival of the era of folding screen mobile phones. In addition, CITIC Securities expects that with the upgrading of the industrial chain, the mainstream price range of folding screen mobile phones in the future is expected to drop to 5,000-8,000 yuan, although this price is still beyond the budget of mainstream consumers, but there is also an opportunity for folding screen mobile phones to be recognized and accepted by more consumers.
Write at the end
Overall, although the folding screen mobile phone market potential is huge, it is also accompanied by many technical problems that need to be tackled. With the future folding screen technology more and more mature, price, service life and other issues have been solved one by one, we have reason to believe that folding screen mobile phones will become a force that cannot be ignored in the smartphone market.
However, it is still too early to make a conclusion, although there are head manufacturers one by one into the game, but whether the folding screen mobile phone can "break out" in 2022 still depends on the direction of the entire industry.