The first quarter of this year was the third best quarter for foldable smartphones, according to DSCC. It did not reach the record highs of the holiday quarter (Q4’21), but with 2.22 million shipments in total it is up 571% compared to last year’s Q1.
Shells continue to dominate: the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 alone accounted for 51% of all leaflets shipped. The Galaxy Z Fold3 was the second most popular foldable in Q1. As you can imagine, Samsung remains the market leader by a large margin, controlling 74% of the market, compared to Huawei.
That said, Huawei’s market share is actually on the rise and the company accounted for 20% of the leaflets shipped in the first three months of this year. Almost all of the credit goes to the Huawei P50 Pocket. Again, clamshells are very popular.
DSCC reports that Samsung has set higher expectations for this year’s Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold4. The latter is interesting: analysts believe this is a signal for a more affordable price (i.e. below the $ 1,800 at which the Z Fold 3 was launched).
As for the market in general, it is expected to double to 16 million shipments in total by the end of the year. Expensive, relatively low-volume foldables won’t suffer from component shortages as much as rigid phones.
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