In 2018, Royole released the world's first folding screen mobile phone, opening a new era in the form of mobile phones. Now that it is 2024, folding screen mobile phones with various configurations, various forms, and various prices on the market are emerging in an endless stream, and folding screen mobile phones have gradually become one of the "important members" of the entire mobile phone market.
(Image source: Royole official)
However, compared with the horizontal folding screen mobile phone that is full of materials, Xiao Lei personally prefers the freshness brought by the vertical folding screen mobile phone, Xiao Lei even thinks that the vertical folding screen mobile phone is more attractive to consumers, and has greater advantages in price, practicality and appearance.
(Image source: vivo official)
But it turns out that the market doesn't seem to recognize the vertical folding screen mobile phone, and vivo and OPPO, which have done the most diligent vertical folding screen mobile phones two years earlier, have suspended the update of the product line, which once made Xiaolei think that the vertical folding screen mobile phone market has no future.
However, just recently, some netizens revealed that Honor and Xiaomi are about to release their first vertical folding screen mobile phones, and Huawei will continue to update its Pocket series. Therefore, for the entire mobile phone market, is it a good player to enrich the product line, or a "chicken rib" that is tasteless and abandoned?
The vertical folding screen should not be ignored
Today's vertical folding screen mobile phones on the market have universal advantages: its weight is lighter than the mainstream straight flagship, and after folding, it will become more compact and easier to carry, which is very suitable for women and some users who like a light and thin feel.
(Image source: OPPO official)
Moreover, compared with the horizontal folding screen mobile phone, which needs to be opened and used with both hands, the way of opening and closing the vertical folding screen is more in line with the natural finger sliding method of human beings, and because the operation logic of the vertical folding screen after unfolding is completely consistent with the mainstream straight mobile phone, there is almost no threshold for users to get started, and there is no need to adapt and learn additionally.
In order to further facilitate the use of users, many manufacturers will also work their external screens, not only making the size of the external screen larger and larger, but also linking with various APPs, such as returning to WeChat on the external screen, brushing Xiaohongshu, raising electronic pets, etc.
(Image source: Produced by Lei Technology)
But as an ordinary consumer of Xiaolei,In fact, the external screen is getting bigger and bigger,It's a little difficult to understand the more exaggerated it is,Originally, the vertical folding screen mobile phone was the main one that was convenient and small,Simple and easy to use,And now most of the vertical folding screen mobile phones on the market are becoming more and more complicated,What 3-inch outer screen、Circular special-shaped screen,There is a feeling of "forced" users to use the external screen。
Of course, Xiaolei is not saying that the "external screen" has rich functions is a bad thing, for example, on the densely populated subway, you can quickly reply to WeChat messages on the "external screen", you can also swipe a short video, or read a novel, in fact, it is a very comfortable experience.
But in this way, the significance of the vertical folding screen is much smaller, the original design intention of this kind of product is a new form of device that integrates small and easy storage and straight mobile phones, but if most scenes can be completed through the external screen, it is better to directly produce a mobile phone with a screen of only three inches.
(Image source: OPPO official)
This is also one of the reasons why Xiaolei believes that the vertical folding screen market has not ushered in many new players in the past year, and manufacturers have also begun to struggle with whether to continue to work the external screen, and whether users need such a small screen full of "practicality".
The reason why folding screen phones have two screens is to share the pressure on the inner screen and improve practicality, but nowadays, the outer screen is rich enough to often make people pay more attention to "non-focus", which is undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse.
Vertically folding folding screen mobile phones are obviously new forms of products that are more in line with user habits, and the difficulty of adapting them is much lower for manufacturers than horizontal folding screen mobile phones, but why is it suddenly not so popular?
In addition to the lack of innovation in the current vertical folding screen mobile phone, Xiaolei also believes that its lower positioning and pricing make it inherently lacking a certain competitiveness compared with the horizontal folding screen mobile phone.
For example, Huawei's first folding screen mobile phone, Mate X, the price of 18,000 yuan and the relatively "average" quality control rate did not affect its big sales, and there were even many scalpers who speculated its price to 30,000 yuan or 40,000 yuan, but it still couldn't stop the enthusiasm of consumers.
(Image source: Huawei official)
Some readers may refute, a mobile phone is just a mobile phone, can you still raise your face? Of course, there will be people who buy mobile phones for the sake of face, or that folding screen mobile phones have additional social attributes compared to mainstream straight mobile phones, when you go out to dinner with friends, when he sees your folding screen mobile phone, he will be very curious to ask whether it is good to use, whether it is expensive, whether it is worth buying, etc.
Obviously, for folding screen phones, social attributes are the most important.
The vertical folding screen mobile phone has suffered this loss, because the product form is not as "high-end and atmospheric" as the horizontal folding screen mobile phone, and the price is also relatively "popular", in more popular terms, it is "can't fit X".
(Image source: Huawei official)
But does this mean that there is really no market for vertical folding screen mobile phones? Of course not, compared with the horizontal folding screen mobile phone, the most important task of the vertical folding screen mobile phone is to bring down the price of the folding screen mobile phone, so that more users can contact and get used to using the folding screen mobile phone.
Therefore, in Xiaolei's view, the vertical folding screen mobile phone in the future may not be like last year, crazy involution in configuration and innovation, but consider how to make the price of vertical folding screen mobile phone more affordable, even if the surrounding configuration is slightly reduced, but it can bring consumers a novel enough experience, it is enough.
Folding screen mobile phones are at the starting point of the outbreak, if the main task of folding screens in the past few years is to show their muscles with technology, then now, it is time to grab users with real knives and guns.
Can the vertical folding screen market usher in a "phenomenal product"?
As mentioned earlier, with OPPO and vivo both "stopping" the update of the vertical folding screen mobile phone product line, there are only Huawei and Samsung in the vertical folding screen mobile phone market today, but it can also be clearly felt that its popularity has decreased a lot compared with the previous two years, on the one hand, the user's freshness of it has decreased a lot, and on the other hand, the vertical folding screen mobile phone market lacks a "phenomenal product".
So, what are the requirements for the "phenomenal product" of a vertically folding folding screen mobile phone? In Xiao Lei's view, there are three main points.
First, the price must be close enough to the people, in fact, a simple glance at today's vertical folding folding screen mobile phone market, it is not difficult to find that most of the prices are around 6000 yuan, this price can basically buy a top straight flagship, there will be no compromise in the configuration and use experience.
(Image source: OPPO Jingdong's official self-operated flagship store)
And like Nubia and Motorola, there are very few that will hit the price of three or four thousand yuan, and limited by their right to speak in the supply chain, several "people-friendly" folding screen mobile phones launched by these two manufacturers are a little spicy in terms of configuration, which can be said to be far inferior to the price of straight phones. Therefore, the task of launching a vertically folding screen mobile phone with reasonable configuration and affordable price falls on the big manufacturers such as Mi OV Huarong;
Second, several key technologies of today's folding screen mobile phones are still not mature, taking the most important hinge technology as an example, various manufacturers have launched the so-called "self-developed hinge" technology, but they are basically "give and take" compromise technology, although Samsung's U-shaped hinge can reduce the weight and thickness of the mobile phone, but the problem of ash has not been solved, Huawei's drop-shaped hinge can bring shallower creases, but the reliability will drop a lot compared with the U-shaped hinge, and the mature technology is not enough to make it difficult for consumers to accept, No one wants the folding screen mobile phone they bought back tens of thousands of dollars bigger, and the service life is not as long as the ordinary mobile phone they bought before three or four thousand;
Finally, the repair price,OPPO Find N3 FlipThe cost price of replacing an inner screen alone is 2600 yuan,Even within the warranty period, you have to pay 1900 yuan for the replacement fee。 After the reliability of the technology is associated with the high selling price, the hidden cost of the folding screen after-sales makes it difficult for many users to return to the pit after stepping on the pit. When a repair costs almost the price of a new mobile phone, many users are shy away from folding screens.
(Image source: OPPO official)
Therefore, not only the vertical folding screen mobile phone, but also the entire folding screen mobile phone market is difficult to reproduce the glory of the early folding screen mobile phone before it completely solves these problems, and this phenomenal product, who will launch it in the future, depends on the research and development strength of the manufacturers.