Worldwide Foldable Phone Forecast, 2022–2026

Worldwide Foldable Phone Forecast, 2022–2026

This IDC study presents our updated five-year forecast for foldable phone shipments worldwide. The worldwide foldable phone market will reach 13.5 million foldable phones in 2022, up 66.6% from the 8.1 million units shipped in 2021. Total foldable shipments worldwide will reach 41.5 million units by 2026, resulting in a CAGR of 38.7% for 2021–2026."The recent launch of the Galaxy Z Flip4 and Fold4 will once again shine a spotlight on the entire category as Samsung continues to be the gold standard for foldable devices in the market," said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "The new launches from Samsung have brought incremental but critical improvements over their predecessors. The success of these devices should be a strong indicator of how foldables will evolve and capture consumers moving forward. In addition, from a consumer standpoint, the price remains a pain point. Still, the similar $999 starting price should be welcomed by consumers considering most consumer goods have seen price increases in 2022 during this inflationary period.""With almost 70% YoY growth for foldables expected in 2022, the biggest question today is will foldables become mainstream anytime soon. Unfortunately, the answer is no," said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. "To me, mainstream means volume, and volume is dominated by cheaper sub-$400 phones. While it may be tempting for vendors to scoop in with lower ASPs to generate an initial boost in sales, I strongly believe that is not a good move — especially not at the expense of quality and user experience. Foldables should remain a niche and premium flagship device. Instead, vendors should focus on improving user experience and building to increase confidence in the category and generate long-term growth. I believe foldables are the future of premium Android devices even if as a whole they are only expected to capture less than 3% of global volume by the end of our forecast period."

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