"Science and Technology Innovation Board**" on February 22 (Reporter Guo Hui).The sales of folding screen mobile phones in the domestic market continue to grow, but small folding (vertical folding) mobile phones are in an awkward situation. According to the latest report released by IDC, the market share of vertical folding products will decline significantly year-on-year in 2023.
Huawei today released the Pocket 2 vertical folding product, equipped with Xuanwu water drop hinge and sunflower electromagnetic field superposition technology, which fully optimizes the screen crease and communication experience, and Samsung is also expected to release the Galaxy Z Flip 6 product as scheduled this summer. However, there has been recent market news that some domestic mobile phone manufacturers are considering shelving their plans to release the first vertical folding screen this year.
The reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Board interviewed and observed that factors such as the narrow audience of the product and the lack of use scenarios have become important reasons for the gradual "loss of momentum" of vertically folded products in the context of the overall sales growth of folding screen mobile phones. From the perspective of manufacturers' response strategies, Huawei is trying to "break the circle" with a wider range of young users by creating a fashionable and high-end positioning for the Pocket series products.
Huawei released the new Pocket series of machines to "break the circle" with fashion and high-end
Huawei, Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers are still continuing to update their annual vertical folding flagship products. It is understood that Samsung has previously registered the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 as trademarks, and according to the previous release cycle, it is expected that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 may be iterated in the summer of 2024.
In today's Huawei Pocket 2 fashion ceremony, Huawei released the **Pocket series of vertical folding screen mobile phones, priced from 7499 yuan. Compared with the previous generation of products, Huawei Pocket 2 is not major in terms of external form, continuing the "pearl double ring" design, with Tahitian gray, Rococo white, taro purple (plain leather), Ya black (vegan leather) 4 colors, weight 199g, thickness 735mm, the screen size increased to 694 inches.
In terms of the most core hinge parts,The Huawei Pocket 2 is equipped with a basalt waterdrop hinge, which is claimed to achieve "extreme flatness", increasing the flatness by 62%.。In addition, due to the double lever gear, the volume is reduced by 20% and the support force is increased by 41%. At the same time, the floating screen design is adopted, which increases the screen space by 400% and the anti-drop ability by 112%.
The core selling point of the Huawei Pocket 2 also includes its new communication technology. It is understoodThis product uses Lingxi communication and upgrades, and is equipped with sunflower electromagnetic field superposition technology for the first time, which can be innovatively reconstructed to make the mobile phone achieve high and low frequency antenna signal superposition when hovering, comprehensively optimize the signal quality of GPS, WiFi, and cellular networks, and maintain stable network signals in suburbs, mountain roads, basement garages and other environments。At the same time, Huawei Pocket 2 is also the industry's first small folding flagship that supports two-way Beidou satellite messaging.
Huawei may have also noticed the limitations of the vertical folding product experience and positioning, so in the marketing strategy of Huawei Pocket 2, it spared no effort to create a fashionable and high-end image for the product, and in terms of function, it also paid more attention to the needs of young urban users. From the perspective of product positioning and functional experience, vertical folding products are no longer simply regarded as functional consumer electronics products by manufacturers, but more of a must-have fashion item for hipsters, which may break through the limitations of the original product application scenarios and audiences.
At the press conference, in addition to inviting Chen Duling, Wang Anyu, Zhuang Dafei and other domestic showbiz "top streamers" to help, according to reports, this Huawei Pocket 2 also joined hands with international high-end fashion designer Iris Van Herpen to jointly launch a high-end version of the model. In terms of technology, this product adopts the exquisite 3D dynamic space technology of 680,000 lithographic lenses, which is only 0On the 14mm diaphragm, 87 complex and precise production processes are used to create a 3D spatial visual experience on the body of the Huawei Pocket 2 Art Custom Edition.
Extreme design often means that the final price of the product is expensive. It is understood that the price of the 16GB+1TB version of the art customized version of the product has risen, reaching a level of up to 10,999 yuan.
The market share of vertical folding mobile phones has declined: there is a lack of scenarios and a narrow audience
According to IDC's latest mobile phone quarterly tracking report, in 2023, China's folding screen mobile phone market will ship about 70070,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1145%。It is understood that since the launch of the first folding screen product in 2019, China's folding screen mobile phone market has grown by more than 100% year-on-year for 4 consecutive years.
Among them, a number of new products from Huawei, OPPO and Honor promoted the folding screen market to continue its rapid growth momentum in the quarter. Judging from the market performance of various brand manufacturers,The Mate X5 series has been in a state of increased purchase since its launch, and the supply exceeds demand, helping Huawei occupy the first position in the domestic folding screen market in 2023, with a market share of 374%；OPPO gets 183% market share, ranking second in the overall folding screen market, among themOPPO in the vertical fold product market with 363% market share ranks first
Behind the surge in sales, it can be clearly seen that horizontal folding mobile phone products are more popular with Chinese consumers, while vertical folding mobile phone products will have a significant decline in market share in 2023, although they are relatively lower and more portable.
In 2022, the market share of vertical folding products in China's folding screen market will be 423%, and in 2023, this proportion has dropped by 104 percentage points.
The IDC analysis points outVertical folding products still lack the necessary use scenarios, and there is a significant gap between the use experience and the straight board machine at the same price, and there is still more room for improvement in product quality
Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industrial economic analyst, also expressed a similar view in an interview with a reporter from the "Science and Technology Innovation Board", and the user share of the vertical folding mobile phone is relatively small, because its use scenario does not form a big breakthrough with the original straight board smartphone, and the consumer experience is also poor, and the use experience does not have the visual shock brought by the large screen of the horizontal folding mobile phone.
And that's not all,The small user base and narrow product audience are also important reasons why vertical folding mobile phones are gradually "losing ground" in the context of the overall sales growth of folding screen products.
According to iResearch's "2023 China Folding Screen Mobile Phone User Insight Report", most of the existing users of vertical folding screens are young and middle-aged groups in the first-tier and sinking markets, and from the perspective of user age distribution, the 30-39 age group is the main user of vertical folding screen mobile phones, accounting for 417%。In contrast, among the users of horizontal folding screen mobile phones, male users account for a large proportion, and the age distribution is relatively balanced, especially the 18-29-year-old young group who love to try new things and the 30-39 year-old group with stable economic income account for a relatively high proportion.
Although in the previous vertical folding form product track, various brands showed a competitive situation of "fierce soldiers", but recently there has been market sentiment, and the interest of domestic head mobile phone manufacturers in vertical folding products is declining. Previously, according to the latest report released by well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the two brands OPPO and vivo have shelved their plans to release ** vertical folding screens in 2024. However, OPPO responded to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board**" that the company's folding series of products are advancing as planned.
However, it remains to be seen whether the Pocket series products can drive the growth of the share of vertical small folding mobile phones.