news

It has become a general consensus among mobile phone manufacturers that high-end mobile phones should be in foldable form. Just this month, mobile phone manufacturers such as Honor, Samsung, and Xiaomi have successively released foldable screen products.

On July 12, Honor first released a series of foldable screen products. The Honor Magic V3, with a 9.2mm thickness in the folded state, set a new record for the thinnest inward-folding screen. A few days later, Samsung released its sixth-generation foldable screen products Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 in China. Xiaomi released two foldable screen phones, Xiaomi MIX Fold 4 and MIX Flip, at its annual speech by Lei Jun. At the same time, there are reports that Huawei's nova series of small foldable phones are currently scheduled to be officially released in August. Not only that, many manufacturers such as OPPO and vivo are eager to try foldable screens.

From a global perspective, foldable screens are indeed a mainstream growth trend. According to a report by Counterpoint Research, global shipments of foldable screen smartphones in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 49% year-on-year, setting a quarterly record; the report also predicts that global shipments of foldable screen smartphones will reach a new peak in the second quarter of 2024, increasing by 113% year-on-year.

It should be said that this growth figure is rare in the already saturated mobile phone market.

Compared with overseas mobile phone manufacturers, only Samsung will focus on folding screens, while Chinese manufacturers are more confident in folding screens. According to a report released by IDC, the shipment volume of China's folding screen mobile phone market in 2023 will be about 7.007 million units, a year-on-year increase of 114.5%. Since 2019, the year-on-year growth rate of China's folding screen mobile phone market has exceeded 100% for four consecutive years.

Interestingly, foldable screens were once considered a "false proposition."

Five years ago, many mobile phone manufacturers were deterred from foldable screen phones due to problems such as imperfect supply chain, easy wear and tear, and high maintenance costs. The world's first foldable screen phone is generally considered to be the FlexPai released by Royole Technology in 2018. However, although Royole launched the world's first foldable flexible screen phone, it was not well-known enough and was not chosen by many users. Now the company is facing bankruptcy.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold, released in February 2019, may be the first truly large-scale mass-produced and influential foldable screen mobile phone. In the following two years, Samsung has successively released as many as 7 foldable screen mobile phones, making it the manufacturer with the largest number of foldable screen mobile phones so far.

Huawei then released its first 5G foldable screen mobile phone, Huawei Mate X, during the MWC in February 2019, which marked Huawei's official entry into the foldable screen mobile phone market. Currently, Huawei and Samsung are still the two mobile phone manufacturers with the largest foldable screen shipments in the world.

It is worth noting that Apple has not yet entered the foldable screen field. The industry believes that Apple is waiting for an opportunity for latecomer advantage - after the pioneers have spent real money to educate the market and gradually explored a mature and standardized way of playing, latecomers are often better able to understand and respond to public needs.

It is reported that Apple has already applied for many patents in the field of folding screens. For example, Apple has explored a self-healing material covering the screen, which can return to its original shape after stretching, reducing creases or scratches. In addition, Apple has a patent called bidirectional folding, which shows a unique hinge design that allows the device to achieve bidirectional folding inward and outward, providing a more flexible way to use the phone.

It can be seen that before Apple officially entered the foldable screen market, Chinese companies were already quite mature in the supply chain.

Honor CEO Zhao Ming told the media: "The titanium alloy technology, shield steel technology, and aerospace special fiber used in Magic V3 and Magic VS3 are all jointly innovated by us and the industrial chain. China's strong manufacturing base and the development of materials science in the past few years have provided us with a lot of choices."

At the same time, he also pointed out that if we only look at the investment in foldable screens, Honor's accumulated losses have reached 20 to 30 billion yuan. "But if we consider the distribution, the core capabilities and innovations it brings to Honor's entire system are very worthwhile for Honor, and the value far exceeds the investment."

From Honor's product series, foldable screen phones, as high-end products among smartphones, are of great significance to improving its brand image and market position, but its traditional mobile phone business contributes more sales and revenue. According to IDC data, in the first quarter of 2024, Honor ranked first in the Chinese smartphone market with a market share of 17.1%, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, news began to spread inside and outside Silicon Valley that Apple was preparing to launch a foldable iPhone. In May, it was also reported that it had signed a foldable screen supply contract with Samsung Display. A person in the display industry said, "Apple usually prepares new products within two years. Considering the timing of component orders, this means they are considering releasing it in 2026."

When facing Apple, a potentially powerful competitor in the future, Zhao Ming said, "We expect Apple to develop a folding screen that is unique to its understanding, and we also look forward to more direct competition with Apple." (Fortune Chinese website)