This year, the relatively young folding device market will see its first explosive growth. New players will enter the market during the year, and shipments of devices with foldable screens will double compared to last year. This forecast was shared by analysts at Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC).
A new DSCC report says that in the fourth quarter of 2020, shipments of foldable devices increased 54% compared to the third quarter and 242% compared to 2019. The market leader is still the South Korean company Samsung, whose share of folding smartphones in the final quarter of last year accounted for 91% of total sales. During 2020, aggregate shipments of flexible devices reached 2.2 million units, up 1000% from a year earlier. Samsung’s share in the 12 months of last year was 87%.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip was named the best-selling foldable smartphone of the last year. It accounts for half of the market sales. The second most popular is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Interestingly, Samsung will remain the market leader in 2021, despite the emergence of new competitors. According to analysts at DSCC, the Korean brand’s foldable devices will account for 81% of total global sales. In addition, Samsung will receive 76% of all market revenue. And subsidiary Samsung Display will be the main manufacturer of flexible displays – its share in total shipments will increase from 83.5% in 2020 to 87% in 2021.
Analysts expect that by the end of 2021, sales of foldable devices will exceed 5.1 million units, and more than 3 million of them will be delivered in the fourth quarter. And revenue will grow 137% over the year to $ 8.6 billion. In addition to Samsung, foldable smartphones will appear in an assortment of seven more brands, including Google, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi. If we consider form factors, then the share of devices that fold in the manner of a book (in the style of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold) will account for 49% of the revenue in the market this year versus 39% a year earlier. Experts also point out that such smartphones will be equipped with flexible screens with a diagonal of 7.1 to 8.2 inches, while the size of screens for gadgets in the form of clamshells will not exceed 7 inches.
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