What They Say
Sigmaintell Research of China said that it expects the global shipments of ‘small’ folding smartphones to be 9 million with YoY growth of around 138% and with higher growth than larger models. The firm expects sales of folding sets to be around 14.3 million for the year, up 98%,
In the first half of the year, many factors combined to push the smartphone market overall down around 9.2% to 580 million, with 280 million in Q2, down 7.8%. For the year, the firm now expects a total of 1.2 billion to be shipped, down 7.4%.
Samsung remains number 1 but Apple did best in Q2 with shipments of 47.3 million, up 10.5%. Chinese makers were badly impacted by Covid lockdowns and channel inventory has increased. Sigmaintell estimates the Chinese market at 140 million handsets in the first half of the year. Penetration is around 83.4%, up 6.1% year on year. Flexible OLEDs were used in around 56 million sets with penetration reaching 39.8%, up 10.9%. Folding handsets were nearly 1 million, up 100% compared to last year.
What We Think
This data seems broadly inline with other reports. IDC has just released its forecast for 2022 which suggests slightly higher sales at 1.27 billion with slightly less of a drop. (BR)
