According to DSCC data, the first quarter of this year was the third-best quarter ever for foldable smartphones, although it did not reach the record high of the holiday quarter (Q4 2021), but totaled 2.22 million units shipped. This is a 571% increase compared to the first quarter of last year.
Flip phones continue to dominate — the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 alone accounts for 51% of all foldable phone shipments. The Galaxy Z Fold3 was the second most popular foldable phone in the first quarter.
As you can imagine, Samsung is still the market leader by a large margin, it controls 74% of the market, and Huawei is in second place, Huawei’s market share is actually rising, the company accounted for foldables in the first three months of this year. 20% of mobile phone shipments. Almost all the credit goes to the Huawei P50 Pocket. As said before, clamshell foldable phones are hugely popular.
DSCC reports that Samsung has set higher expectations for this year’s Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold4, which analysts see as a signal that the new products are expected to be more affordable (i.e. lower than the $1,800 price when the Z Fold 3 launched).
Based on an analysis of the overall market conditions, it is expected that the total shipments of foldable digital devices will double to 16 million by the end of this year. On the other hand, foldable phones, which are expensive and relatively low-volume, won’t suffer from component shortages like rigid phones.