The foldable smartphone market has seen significant growth in recent years. Innovative and interesting smartphones have managed to excite users from the entry world. Among these, the Galaxy Fold, later transformed into Galaxy Z Fold 3 then 4, but they are not the only ones.
Indeed, Samsung also has its Z Flip range, but the manufacturer is not the only manufacturer of foldable smartphones. This is also the case of Huawei, with its Mate Xs 2 but also its P50 Pocket, as is the case of Xiaomi and now Oppo, with its Find N2 Flip.
But foldable smartphone sales fell 48% from the previous quarter and 26% from the same period in 2021. With a total of 3.1 million smartphones released in December 2022, the market is losing momentum a little. But if you look at all of this on a larger scale, foldable smartphone sales were up 62% for the full year, approaching 13 million devices sold.
Samsung continues to dominate this market with a comfortable lead over its competitors. Indeed, the manufacturer harvests 83% market share. But this share is down slightly, compared to 86% in the third quarter of 2022 and 96% in the third quarter of 2021. The Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 have indeed fallen by 50% in terms of sales volume.
The iPhone 14 also put aside Samsung’s foldable smartphones in the last quarter of 2022. Then came Huawei and Oppo with their respective smartphones. But forecasts are down on overall sales worldwide, with an announced drop of 3% on sales of foldable smartphones this year.
On the other hand, thanks to foldable devices in clamshell format, shipments could exceed 17 million models marketed during the year, thanks to Oppo and Vivo in particular.
But Samsung remains the main supplier of screens for foldable smartphones, more than 80% of screens are made by the Korean giant. BOE meanwhile, only harvests 17% market share.
If there was indeed a drop in sales of foldable smartphones during the last quarter of 2022, the market should recover soon.
