The number of smartphone choices you get when you plan to purchase one can make your head spin, and that's the case for foldable phones now too. With the market once dominated by Samsung, other brands are starting to take over the market share.
Samsung is Already at 50% Market Share
Foldable phones are all the rage right now as people recognize how convenient it can be to store. Since you can fold it, they might be able to fit better in your pocket without the top sticking out. Plus, the screen might be more protected since it's enclosed.
Other brands have recognized the popularity of the phone model and started releasing their own. There are now at least six other brands you can opt for if you choose to buy a foldable phone, and while Samsung still has the lion's share, it is slowly decreasing to less than half.
Just to put into perspective how drastic the change has been, Samsung held 80% of the market share in foldable phones back in 2022. That has since dropped by 20% between 2023 to 2024, and now it stands at 50.4%, as per The Verge.
The second brand to have the most shares would be Huawei with 30.8%, while the others are no more than 7% such as Motorola, Honor, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and more. With that said, foldable phones still hold a small percentage of the global smartphone market.
Analysts said that this year would only see about 1.5% of smartphone sales being comprised of foldable phones, although the number might increase once Apple decides to enter the market with its own model. It would then result in a 5% increase by 2028.
Low Foldable Phone Sales
Standard smartphones we have gotten used to, foldable come with advantages like the capability to cut its size in half, as well as retain functionality even though it is closed. Still, people would prefer the device they wouldn't need to open to use.
There are also setbacks when one uses foldable phones. For instance, frequent opening and closing could eventually lead to the foldable phone's screen wearing out and breaking, which beats the purpose of the device.
Since foldable smartphones are not the norm and very few people use them, repair services might not know the right way to repair them, or they might not have the necessary components to fix a foldable screen when it breaks.
It would be harder to find phone cases for them as well since not a lot of vendors care for selling cases that cater to 1.5% of smartphone users, and not a lot of companies manufacture them. Samsung does sell official cases, but other than that, there's no variety for users.
While the leading brand has released a model where the fold no longer creates a gap between the screen, other models still have it, which can cause debris to enter the fold and potentially damage the screen.
