Foldable phones are redefining how we interact with our smartphones

In February 2008, the Netherlands-based Polymer Vision, a Philips subsidiary, announced the Readius. It was rollable and had a flexible e-ink display. Part portable media device, part e-reader, it ran into rough weather with the cheaper alternatives, such as Amazon’s Kindle DX.

In 2009, Polymer Vision went bankrupt.

Its failure kept the canvas blank for four years until Samsung, in 2013, picked up the foldable gauntlet. The South Korean giant, during its Consumer Electronics Show that year, presented several concepts of smartphones with flexible displays under the codename, Youm. Down the road, there were other attempts to break open the market, such as ZTE’s Axon M and Royole Flexpai, but they did not catch on.

At the 2019 Mobile World Congress, Samsung announced the Galaxy Fold. Its design was derived from 2014’s Galaxy Note Edge, which was Samsung’s first commercial device with a curved display.

The Galaxy Fold met with scepticism, related to display failures, and Samsung shelved its release. Still, it spurred announcements from Huawei, Xiaomi and Motorola, which had their own foldable phones in the works. In 2020, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Flip series.

Since then, several smartphone makers have jumped into the fray, including Oppo, Vivo and Google. This week, OnePlus unveiled its maiden foldable device, the OnePlus Open, priced at Rs 1,39,999.

As the launches have come, the market has expanded. Until 2020, shipments of foldable smartphones were hardly a few thousand. The next year, more than 100,000 were sold. And in 2022, foldable shipments crossed the 500,000 mark, out of the overall smartphone market of 144 million, according to estimates from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Today, foldable phones are becoming the mainstay in India’s ultra-premium smartphone segment, where prices move upwards of Rs 40,000. The foldable segment makes up less than 1 per cent of the overall smartphone market. However, in 2023, until August, it is 13 per cent of the ultra-premium category, according to data from Counterpoint.

Foldable phone shipments are likely to cross 1 million next year, and their share of the premium smartphones could touch 35 per cent by 2025.

 The allure

The foldable form factor has emerged as a critical differentiator in the market.

“In the ultra-premium segment, owning a foldable provides differentiation value as even iPhones are now widely owned,” says Prachir Singh, senior analyst with Counterpoint Research, a technology market research firm.

It is not just novelty; foldable phones have opened up interesting use cases, owing to their capability of acting as alternatives to laptops and tablets, be it for work, entertainment, or gaming.

“In the premium segment, the ultimate aspiration is to own an iPhone. However, Android brands can excite and entice customers using the fold form factor,” says Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst at research firm Techarc.

A lot will depend on affordability and hardware. The flexible displays needed for foldable phones, the system-on-a-chip, and body materials drive up manufacturing costs.

“UI and pricing are the two areas where smartphone companies can differentiate themselves from competition,” Singh adds.

The barrier

Some consumers say they are concerned about the durability and longevity of foldable phones – concerns brands try to address with each new iteration. Meanwhile, the market remains skewed in favour of large companies that can afford to have high-end devices – foldable phones are usually priced above Rs 1,00,000 – in their catalogue even when they are not guaranteed to sell like hot cakes, at least not for the time being.

“Foldable phones will remain a niche segment, a subset of the premium market. These devices will not completely replace the premium market as the dominant form factor,” Kawoosa says.

Brands offering cheaper fold alternatives, such as Tecno, whose Phantom V Flip costs Rs 55,000 and Phantom V Fold Rs 78,500 on Amazon, could harbour hopes. That is an area where localisation of manufacturing will make a difference.

Not surprisingly, Samsung said earlier this year it would manufacture the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 in India. As their names suggest, both are foldable phones and signal the unfolding of the future.

How things are unfolding

- In February 2008, Netherlands-based device maker Polymer Vision announced the Readius, with a flexible e-ink display that was rollable

- In 2013, Samsung presented several concepts of smartphones with flexible displays under the codename, Youm

- In 2019, at the Mobile World Congress, Samsung announced its Galaxy Fold

- The launch spurled a bevy of announcements from Huawei, Xiaomi and Motorola

- In early 2020, Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip series, a horizontal folding device similar to Motorola’s clamshell smartphone, the Razr

- Oppo, OnePlus, Google, and Vivo, have launched their own foldable phones

What the numbers say
 

- Foldable phones make up less than 1% of the overall smartphone market

- For 2023, the foldable market is expected to be between 0.5% and 0.7% of the overall market of 140-142 million shipments

- This year, till August, foldable phones constituted 13% of the ultra-premium smartphone shipments (above Rs 45,000)

-Ultra-premium smartphones are expected to touch 35% of the overall market by end-2025

Source: IDC and Counterpoint