What They Say
DSCC put out a blog post earlier this week about foldable phones and we didn’t report it as we had just published an article on that topic from the firm. (DSCC Reduces Foldable Shipment Forecast). However, when I looked again, as usual there was some useful data on quarterly developments, so we are reporting it.
Q2 was good for foldable panel shipments with year on year sales growing 141% to 3.1 million, while foldable handsets were up 94% to 1.6 million. The rise in panels was to prepare for new models in Q3. Samsung sold 50% of the smartphones and bought 66% of the panels, followed by Huawei with 37% of handsets and Oppo with 8%. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 was the best selling model, just ahead of Huawei’s 32% for its P50 Pocket, and took 34% of sales.
Samsung Display remained the top panel supplier with a 73% share followed by BOE at 18% and Visionox at 8% in Q2.
In Q3, foldable smartphone panel shipments are expected to grow 111% Q/Q and 63% Y/Y to 6.6M panels. Foldable phone shipments are expected to grow 297% Q/Q and 142% Y/Y to 6.2M phones on the launch of the Z Flip 4, Z Fold 4, Motorola Razr 2022 and Xiaomi Mix Fold 2. Samsung should rise to 85% of shipments of handsets and is expected to buy 87% of the panels. The Z Flip 4 should be the best seller, with Europe the strongest region.
Samsung Display’s share is expected to surge to 90% in Q3’22 on its new product launch with no other supplier with more than a 4% share.
What We Think
With relatively few models, product introductions have a big impact. The brands other than Samsung and Huawei must wonder what they have to do to get off the mark in any meaningful way. (BR)
