On October 30, the market research agency DSCC released an industry report on foldable screen panels. It is expected that shipments in the fourth quarter of this year will be 2.9 million, down 46% from the previous quarter’s forecast of 5.4 million. According to the analysis of the report, as the release of the iPhone 14 series has taken away some of the attention, new-type smartphones with high prices are still not favored by consumers.
(Picture from: Xiaomi Mall)
Although the market demand for consumer electronics products is on the decline, smartphone manufacturers still hope to reduce the layout of mid-to-low-end products, rely on the initial high-profile dividends of foldable smartphones, and occupy more high-end market share, but at present, it seems that, This approach doesn’t seem to work. The latest data shows that there is a discrepancy from the annual sales volume of 15.3 million folding screen smartphones expected at the beginning of the year. According to the current situation, the final shipment will hardly exceed 13.2 million units. However, considering that the demand for the smartphone category has plummeted this year, it is also expected that the sales of folding screen mobile phones with high prices and no bigger breakthroughs are not as good as expected.
(Picture from: vivo official Weibo)
In fact, this year can be said to be the most ruthless year for domestic manufacturers in the high-end smartphone market. For example, OPPO and vivo have come up with self-developed image chips, and they have also launched relatively mature folding screens. Smartphones have attracted a lot of attention from the market. It is worth mentioning that in an earlier report on China’s high-end smartphone market share, vivo was the only manufacturer that achieved a contrarian rise, probably thanks to the X Note and X Fold, two more business-oriented models. In addition, Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei have all received considerable attention in the folding screen smartphone category, but the final sales results are not proportional to the high popularity.
(Picture from: OPPO official Weibo)
Of course, as an attempt to form a future mobile phone, foldable smartphones need to take into account consumers’ concerns about new products, such as screen life, hinge life and user experience, and blindly invest in immature markets. High-end manufacturers are not the only way. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Filp series, which have withstood the test of the global market, did not respond very well in the third quarter of this year. People in the industry generally believe that they were impacted by the iPhone 14 series, but the sales of the latter is significantly higher than that of the previous generation. decline. It can only be said that it is difficult for smartphone manufacturers to find a breakthrough in selling this year.
At present, the market’s attitude towards folding screen smartphones is extremely divided. One camp believes that folding screen mobile phones have a smaller volume and a larger screen, and will dominate the mobile phone market in the next ten years; the other camp is not interested in such products. hold any hope. However, at present, foldable smartphones are still in the early stage of development, and the performance, image and screen quality cannot be compared with ordinary smartphones for the time being. Perhaps this is the main reason why consumers think that their cost performance is insufficient.
(Cover image from: OPPO official Weibo)