In 2022 the foldable display market expected to expand to 63 million units

As many as 63 million smartphone units with foldable displays may be sold in 2022, with the revenue spiking to $8.9 billion, experts forecast. However, it remains unclear whether the high prices of the innovative foldable displays will push consumers away, especially against the background of decelerating growth of the international smartphone market.

The first quarter of 2019 should be marked by a new record for foldable display phones - 3.1 million units, largely due to Huawei and Samsung models coming out at that time.

One of the reports claims that after next year market acceleration is in the cards along with the drop in both costs and prices, greater availability and a spike in competition, as foldable displays continue their market penetration, expanding into other segments, such as tablets and laptops.

In 2022, the foldable display segment is expected to expand to a whopping 63 million units, with the compound annual growth rate growing by 173%. The revenue should increase 151%, reaching an impressive $8.9 billion three years from now.

Most brands are already researching and implementing foldable displays in certain models, or establishing a road map to do so in the near future. They are hoping to raise the average retail price, and thus, the revenue by implementing the trendy feature that allows to significantly increase operational display size.

A foldable phone is basically two devices in one - a phone in the folded form, and a tablet in the open form.

Some of the manufacturers are practically forced to realize the new foldable devices in order to increase their revenues by achieving a veritable breakthrough in this segment. On the other hand, consumers have not been particularly enthusiastic over the introduction of new technologies recently, such as recently introduced security features, cameras and panels.

The international smartphone market has been slowing down considerably, with a 1.3% drop in 2017 from the 12.2% in 2015. This year’s drop is expected to be at 0.5%.

Foldable devices have been anticipated for quite a while now, but the high prices that they will inevitably come at may put off many customers, which leaves lots of uncertainty in the air for the manufacturers. The technology has been around long enough for the phones to have already come out, but the doubts over marketability have delayed their appearance on the market.

Specific applications that make use of the new and exciting feature need to come out, and be very impressive at that, say the industry experts, otherwise there won’t be any significant demand for these innovative gadgets.

The prices are anticipated to exceed $2000, which is a large premium over the current average price of a premium-class smartphone, which comes at approximately $1500.

Because of the uncertainty in the market, the stocks of companies related to the production of foldables, such as Kolon Industries, SKC Kolon PI and S-mac, have been practically stagnant, and much will depend on the launch of the first foldable display devices.