Editing by Kate Yuan

The foldable smartphone market starts to show growth in China, with major mobile phone brands launching their versions after Huawei took the lead in upgrading its earlier models. Meanwhile, prices for foldable smartphones are going down.  

The statistics by CINNO Research show that the number of sales for the foldable phone in China reached 338,000 in the first three quarters of 2021. The research firm predicts that the number will break through one million this year.  

Another JW Insights article pointed out that Chinese mobile phone manufacturers look at foldable phones as the higher-end product option to shine in the competition.  

Amber Liu, a research analyst from market research firm Canalys told China Daily that “the foldable phone market is gaining momentum fueled by the exploration of handset makers in the high-end smartphone segment. The players are ramping up efforts in innovative eye-catching designs to further tap into surging demand from consumers for portable products during the COVID-19 pandemic,

Another key factor for the growth is that the production capacities for flexible screens have been scaled up and related technologies are maturing.   

Chen Jun, vice-president and chief analyst of Sigmaintell Consulting, a Beijing-based market research firm, that the shipment of homegrown organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels used in smartphones is expected to rise from 95 million units in 2021 to about 160 million in 2022.

According to China Daily, flexible OLED panels produced in China will account for about 37 to 38 percent of the global total this year, a 10% increase over a year before. Prices of foldable phones will likely drop to between RMB5,000 ($784.5) and RMB6,000 ($941.4) in 2022, given the rising maturity of the local supply chain.

Lower prices of foldable handsets seem an irresistible trend. Lin Zhi, the chief analyst of Wit Display, said, “This is a way for smartphone makers to test the market acceptance. If the market heats up or explodes, they will put more effort in the foldable smartphone sector.” 

In December, Huawei Technologies Co unveiled the P50 Pocket, its latest foldable handset, which after folding can be put into a small pocket.

The move came after Chinese smartphone maker OPPO unveiled its first foldable flagship smartphone Find N. Priced at RMB7,699, the phone can serve as a tablet when fully opened and becomes a phone when closed. Other domestic players such as Xiaomi and Vivo are also gearing up to release foldable phones, China Daily reported.

A report released by market research company Counterpoint Research said the shipment of foldable smartphones is foreseen reaching about 9 million units in 2021 worldwide, a threefold growth over 2020. The consultancy expected a tenfold growth in foldable smartphone shipments in 2023.

With the arrival of foldable smartphones, demand for displays using the flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, or AMOLED, technology is likewise surging.

Source: China Daily

China Daily said that domestic display panel suppliers, such as BOE Technology Group Co Ltd, Visionox Technology Inc, and TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd, are doubling down on the flexible screens mainly used in smartphones to break the monopoly of South Korean firms in the industry.

Xu Fengying, vice-president of Visionox, said the company has been providing AMOLED technology for Xiaomi Corp's under-screen camera since June 2019. Xiaomi's prototype foldable phones also used OLED display panels from Visionox.

In addition, the T4 project of TCL CSOT in the sixth-generation flexible AMOLED panel production line began mass production in 2020, with 48,000 modules set to be manufactured each month.

"AMOLED technology is the future for smartphone panels. At the moment, technological upgrades of display panels on smartphones concentrate on appearance, function, and image quality," said Zhang Yu, vice-president of BOE.