New Delhi: Folders, which made up only a fraction of a percent of the total addressable market of 1.3 billion smartphones last year, are expected to reach 1.2% (18 million units) by 2022, according to a new report on Tuesday.

According to Counterpoint Research’s “ Q1 2020 Foldable Smartphone Shipment Forecast ”, the share of foldable smartphone shipments will remain at a lower figure for the foreseeable future as the industry experiments with various form factors, designs, materials and system variants. ‘exploitation.

In the meantime, a variety of different form factors will hit the market, with recent announcements from Oppo and TCL opening up the possibility of designing both rollable and hybrid “Fold ‘n Roll” models.

“TCL’s teaser of their Fold ‘n Roll design is particularly interesting from an engineering perspective because of the technology required to create a truly robust business model. It makes sense that TCL is leading this as they can experiment more by being a vertically integrated player, ”said Neil Shah, Vice President of Research at Counterpoint.

LG Display, another major vendor, will also be looking for contenders for its cutting edge foldable / rollable wallet given the key customer LG Mobile has thrown in the towel for its smartphone business.

“Ultimately, these display makers will have to find a way to evolve the product to bring the prices of the devices down to significant levels below $ 1,000 to fit in. Plus, the production efficiency of these Innovative screens will be essential for suppliers to realize economies of scale, Shah explained.

Although the market has seen significant growth over the past year, it came from a small base and is expected to remain a niche in the medium term.

Samsung led the segment in terms of design, marketing and shipping, dominating last year with over 80% of the foldables market.

“This year, however, Samsung faces increased competition, with the release of the Mate X2, Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Fold, and announcements from vivo, Oppo and TCL hinting at launches in 2021,” the company said. senior analyst Jene Park.

Much of scaling up also comes through overall industry support and without it growth strategies become more and more complicated for OEMs.

“Smartphone makers, as well as Google and the Android developer ecosystem will need to optimize software and apps for new form factors, and this is where we might see a lot of fragmentation early on,” Shah said. .