Folding innovation into a new trend of smart phones Android head brands have been laid out folding screen models

Per reporter: Wang Jing Per editor: Liang Xiao

Folding screen mobile phone has become a new trend in the development of smart phones, its innovative, personalized appearance not only alleviates the aesthetic fatigue of consumers on traditional bar mobile phones, but also folds different folding methods such as left and right folding, up and down folding, inside and outside folding also bring new experiences to consumers.

According to Canalys statistics, the shipment of folding screen smartphones reached 8.9 million units in 2021, an increase of 148% year-on-year, and the growth rate was much higher than that of the smartphone market (7%). At the same time, Canalys also predicts that foldable smartphone shipments will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 53% and are expected to grow to 31.85 million units by 2024. The fast-growing market has also attracted more manufacturers to join.

On the evening of April 11, Vivo's first folding screen mobile phone X Fold was officially released, priced from 8999 yuan. At this point, the top brand folding model of the Android camp has completed the last piece of the puzzle, and Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Honor, vivo, etc. have completed the layout of folding models and begun to seek a breakthrough in the high-end market.

In terms of price, with the continuous addition of market players and the reduction of technical costs, the price of folding screen mobile phones has dropped from 15,000 to 20,000 yuan to about 8,000 yuan, and the cost performance has been greatly improved. Among them, oppo's folding screen mobile phone OPPO Find N basic version released by OPPO in December 2021 is priced at 7699 yuan, which is only slightly higher than the high-end bar mobile phone. The outside world believes that the price decline will drive the sales of folding screen mobile phones to further increase. In fact, "a machine is difficult to find" and "pre-sale is full" has become a realistic format for folding mobile phone sales front-end.

Folding screen mobile phones are accelerating their popularity

In the early stage of release, due to factors such as immature supply chain, poor consumer experience and high price, the market positioning of folding screen mobile phones has always been "niche early adopter", and sales have always hovered at a low level. With the release of major brands of folding screen mobile phones, the trend of falling prices and accelerating popularity has begun to appear.

In March 2021, Xiaomi released the brand's first commercial Mix Fold folding mobile phone, and with off-screen camera technology; in December 2021, OPPO released its first folding mobile phone Find N folding mobile phone, which not only introduced the UTG solution into the domestic brand for the first time, improved the crease effect, but also directly pulled down the price range of the inner folding mobile phone from more than 10,000 yuan to 7699 yuan, igniting the market's enthusiasm for folding mobile phones. After OPPO, Huawei released its first up-and-down folding new P50 Pocket, which is similar in size to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 3 in folded state, smaller and easier to carry.

At the beginning of 2022, Honor released the folding machine Honor Magic V, priced from 9999 yuan. Now, with the release of folding mobile phones in vivo X Fold, the head brands of the Android camp have completed the layout of folding mobile phones.

According to vivo, X Fold uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 4nm process to customize the flagship chip 8 Gen1 SPU, equipped with 8-inch inner screen and 6.53-inch curved outer screen, and the world's first with 3D ultrasonic dual screen fingerprints, folding cover also uses UTG super tough glass, anti-scratch and crease effectively improved.

Vivo's first folding screen mobile phone X Fold Image source: courtesy of vivo

In fact, as early as four years ago, vivo began to study folding screen technology, during which many people were urging, vivo was also anxious, thinking about whether it was almost on the line, first listed to earn a wave of heat, and then gradually iterated, but purely for commercial products, there will be no soul. You can't sacrifice other basic experiences of users in order to fold, such as screen fingerprints, wireless flash charging, taking photos, etc., which are standard on the straight board flagship, but one by one on the folding screen is a big problem. Huang Tao, vice president of vivo products, said at the press conference.

Many players enter, the competition around the folding screen products will also become more and more intense, who can finally stand out not only reflects the manufacturer's technology accumulation, but also promotes the advancement of high-end image.

From the current shipment point of view, in the global market, Samsung and Huawei occupy the main share of the folding screen market. According to the statistics of Qunzhi Consulting, the shipment volume of Samsung folding screen mobile phones in 2021 is 5.8 million units, accounting for 81%; Huawei's shipments are 1 million units, accounting for 13.9%; and Xiaomi's shipments are 200,000 units, accounting for 2.7%.

However, after OPPO, Glory, Vivo and other domestic manufacturers have entered the game, the pattern in 2022 will change. According to OPPO, "After the folding screen mobile phone Find N was listed, it sold 50,000 units in two weeks. ”

In addition, the reporter noted that in order to further seize market share, the price of the folding model of "price butcher" Xiaomi began to explore to 6,000 yuan + gear. The MIX FOLD 256G version of the e-commerce platform's self-operated flagship store has dropped from 8999 yuan / part when it was on sale last year to the current 6999 yuan / part; the 512G version was priced at 10999 yuan / part at that time, and the current activity price is also 6999 yuan / unit, but it is out of stock.

What are the pain points of folding screen mobile phones?

Although the future market space of folding mobile phones continues to be optimistic, it still faces some pain points. Shunlian Think Tank believes that folding mobile phones have problems such as easy surface scratches, obvious creases, thick stacking after folding, high power consumption, and high cost, and need the industry to continue to explore and gradually improve these pain points faced by folding mobile phones through continuous technological upgrading and material improvement.

At present, the cover board used in folding mobile phones released on the market mainly includes transparent polyimide (CPI) and ultra-thin flexible glass (UTG). Among them, CPI as a polymer, the advantage is that the material is relatively soft, not easy to produce rupture, the disadvantage is weak optical performance, insufficient scratch resistance, fatigue resistance and creep resistance is poor; UTG is an inorganic material, compared to CPI The advantage is reflected in the fatigue and creep close to zero, basically no crease, but the disadvantage is that the impact resistance is insufficient and easy to break, with the improvement of the processing process, the bending performance has gradually improved the space.

The earlier CPI material was the mainstream material for the front cover of the folding screen, and Huawei Mate XS used this material. But since Samsung Z Flip first adopted UTG ultra-thin glass for its folding phones in 2020, major manufacturers have begun to pay more attention to UTG. At present, the domestic brands OPPO and vivo have adopted UTT cover on their folding mobile phones.

Secondly, the two components with the highest cost related to folding screen mobile phones are folding screens and hinged kits. According to the data of Shunlian Think Tank, the folding screen accounts for more than 30% of the entire folding screen mobile phone BOM cost, and the hinge also accounts for about 13% of the BOM cost, reducing the cost of these two major components is the main choice to reduce the cost of the folding screen mobile phone.

The quality of the hinge directly affects the overall performance of the folding screen mobile phone. Vivo said that the X Fold hinge contains 174 parts, and the use of liquid metal zirconium alloy, FS53 aviation high-strength steel and other six-fold aerospace grade materials, for ordinary users, even if it is folded 80 times a day, vivo X Fold can still be used normally for 10 years. Guosen Securities said in a research report released in March this year that vivo hinges cost more than 1,200 yuan due to the addition of a variety of aerospace materials.

Liu Zuohu, senior vice president of OPPO, also sighed before: "The cost of folding screen mobile phones is too high, a hinge, hinge, more than 100 US dollars." ”

In addition to hinges, the cost of other components is also rising. Shunlian think tank believes that compared with the traditional straight plate machine, in addition to the screen and hinge kit, the cost of cover plate, OCA, polarizer, support back plate and other materials has recently increased significantly, and the future needs to continuously expand the investment in the industrial chain, realize cost rationalization, and drive the folding screen model to sink to the main consumer market.

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