Jiwei network message, "Folding screen is generally used as a backup machine, and Huawei's new folding screen mobile phone P50 Pocket is intended to be used as the main machine." ”
A person who has long been concerned about the mobile phone industry chain said that the positioning of folding screen mobile phones is the high-end market of mobile phones, and the current sales of folding screen mobile phones are only a segment of the smart phone market, which cannot be compared with other models that run, and the best sales of folding screen mobile phones in the world are still Samsung, and the domestic is Huawei.
Interestingly, even if the sales of folding screen mobile phones are far from comparable to the existing amount of smart phones, but its camp is expanding, to know that the emergence of folding screen mobile phones means that the existing mold, glass, electroplating, screws and other production lines to be torn down and rebuilt, the relevant "reliability test" also needs to be re-verified. For consumers, it is the emergence of a new product, but for the entire mobile phone industry chain, it is an investment of tens of millions of dollars or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
OPPO executives have revealed that Find N, a folding screen mobile phone, in order to achieve an inner screen with a ratio of close to 1:1, OPPO has paid a huge price, and the inner screen alone has spent 100 million yuan. In addition, Samsung, Huawei's folding screen mobile phones have evolved into a series of products, which shows that the entire mobile phone brand manufacturers have spent a lot of effort in the so-called niche market of folding screens, but why will mobile phone manufacturers release new folding screen machines at the end of 2021? Will folding screen phones be the next gold mine?
In this regard, the author learned from the supply chain that the emergence of this phenomenon is caused by the "inner volume" of smart phones. The industry veteran said that smart phones lack highlights, and folding screens have become a highlight of current smart phones, and because of this, major mobile phone manufacturers also hope to further achieve sales growth through folding screens.
Another industry insider also admitted that the current smart phone market capacity opportunities are reflected in the high-end machine market, and the biggest driving force for mobile phone brand manufacturers to fold screen mobile phones is to do differentiation, but the current cost is higher, there will be no outbreak in the short term, but the head mobile phone brand manufacturers or out of several folding screen mobile phones. In its view, whether the folding screen can develop rapidly in the future depends on the application.
"The folding screen is small and does not make money"
The folding screen is not a model with running volume.
According to the data, the global folding screen mobile phone shipments in 2020 were about 1.947 million units, while the global smartphone shipments in the same year were 1.292 billion units, accounting for about 0.15%.
In 2021, although the shipment of folding screens has increased significantly compared with last year, the shipments are difficult to match the running volume models. According to the survey data of DSCC, an authoritative consulting organization in the global display field, the total shipment of folding screen mobile phones in the Q3 quarter of 2021 reached 2.6 million, of which Samsung accounted for 93% of the shipments of foldable smartphones.
According to Canalys data, in the third quarter of 2021, global smartphone shipments reached 326 million units, and through calculations, folding screens accounted for only 0.798% of the world's third quarter of 2021.
It can be seen that in the entire mobile phone market, folding screens are still a very small category.
(For reference only)
In fact, Samsung is the world's first commercial folding screen mobile phone brand manufacturers, but the first launch of Samsung folding screen has gone through twists and turns. According to the data, as early as November 2018, Samsung released a preview of the Galaxy Fold, and in February 2019, Samsung released the first foldable mobile phone Galaxy Fold.
However, the Galaxy Fold has problems such as bulges at the fold, black screens, and splash screens in a very short period of time. Subsequently, Samsung canceled the Galaxy Fold China launch scheduled for April 24 in Shanghai and announced that it would postpone the release date of the phone.
Earlier, Gao Dongzhen, president of Samsung Electronics' mobile communications department, had admitted that Samsung's smartphone business was in trouble and would survive the crisis by launching the Galaxy 10 and folding screen mobile phones.
In other words, Samsung has high hopes for folding screen mobile phones, and because of this, as of now, folding screen mobile phones have developed into a series of products for Samsung mobile phones, and the price has shown a sharp decline.
Interestingly, in addition to Samsung, domestic mobile phone brand manufacturers seem to be folding screen mobile phones. In 2021, after Samsung and Huawei released folding screen mobile phones, Xiaomi followed up and released its first MIX FOLD folding screen product, and at the end of 2021, OPPO also released its first folding screen mobile phone OPPO Find N.
In order to achieve a better user experience effect, oppo alone spent 100 million yuan on the inner screen. In this regard, Li Mingyang, head of OPPO's innovative product team, once admitted that oppo for find N's inner screen is not cost-optimal, but based on user satisfaction.
For the current folding screen mobile phone market, a person who is deeply involved in the mobile phone industry chain said. "At present, mobile phone brand manufacturers enter the folding screen mobile phone market and have related products, which is the first step, and the second step is to solve the problem of user acceptance."
The person continued to add that Huawei's recently released P50 Pocket is more interesting, in the field of folding screen mobile phones, the fastest is Huawei, however, the current folding screen is suitable for the crowd is niche, and thick, heavy and lack of application scenarios are currently the biggest pain points.
However, from the perspective of the unit price of folding screen products, the price is not cheap, so is the folding screen profitable? In this regard, some insiders revealed to the author that whether the folding screen profit is good or not, mainly depends on sales, at present, for mobile phone terminal brand manufacturers, there is no amount of support, can only be a loss of money, because the early products to invest a lot of research and development.
It is understood that the cost of the folding screen mainly comes from the flexible screen and the hinge that realizes the folding. According to Omdia's previous research data, the current price of folding screens is between $150 and $250, which translates into rmb between 1,000 and 1,700 yuan. The price of a conventional flexible OLED screen is around $80, and the price difference between the two is far from the same. Often mainstream brands will have their own size customization needs, and the investment will be more.
It can be seen that how to make the folding screen mobile phone from the standby machine to the main machine is a sign of the success of mobile phone manufacturers, and only in this way can the commercial value of the product be truly realized.
The next gold mine?
Nowadays, the camp of folding screen mobile phones continues to grow, and the emergence of folding screen mobile phone series, first launch and other phenomena is enough to prove that folding screen mobile phones are not just short-lived.
With the gradual maturity of folding screen mobile phones in hardware supply, innovative interaction, application ecology, etc., all parties in the market are optimistic about the volume of folding screen mobile phones in 2022.
However, what needs to be noted here is what the folding screen mobile phone can do? Where is it used? From the current folding screen mobile phone side, the folding screen mobile phone can quickly get an expanded interface, watching videos, playing games, and processing files will get a better sense of experience.
For example, if you need illustrations or other browsing, with the help of the split screen function of the folding screen mobile phone, you can draw out two screens, one side is the original file, and the other side can open the APP you want to edit the auxiliary work.
A veteran of the industry who uses many folding screen mobile phones told the author frankly: "At present, the most important problem that folding screen mobile phone brand manufacturers need to solve is user acceptance. ”
The person also said bluntly that the folding screen mobile phone products that have been released on the market have been used, but frankly, the folding screen mobile phone is temporarily unattractive to ordinary users, in its view, the folding screen mobile phone has not created a flashpoint that makes consumers willing to pay.
First of all, from the price of folding screen mobile phones, it mostly covers commercial users and female users, and in this part of the population, folding screen mobile phones first need to have the capital to beat Apple mobile phones, because in this price segment, more consumer groups may prefer Apple mobile phones.
And this may be an important reason why Samsung failed to successfully complete the folding screen from "early adopter" to "commonly used". On the other hand, unlike smart phones, due to physical reasons, the thickness and weight of folding screen mobile phones have also increased significantly, but it is clear that this is contrary to the usual usage habits of mobile phone consumers.
However, for the folding screen mobile phone market, the industry mainly holds two views. There is a view that folding screen mobile phone is the development trend, after the mobile phone brand manufacturers solve the problem of cost and thickness, sooner or later the folding screen mobile phone will become the main machine.
Another view is that folding screen mobile phones are niche products, and it is only a substitute for the next generation of products. In the author's opinion, the folding screen mobile phone has a long way to go to achieve the successful conversion of the standby machine to the main machine. (Proofreading/New)