Electronics

"There is no stock. MagicV has been in pre-order since its listing. You can experience it in the store, and then make an online reservation on platforms such as Honor Mall or JD." Recently, a reporter from Shanghai Securities News randomly visited the Honor experience store in Shenzhen and found that Honor The first foldable phone is still out of stock.

Affected by the epidemic, the domestic mobile phone market demand has been weak since the beginning of this year, but the folding screen mobile phone market has shown a trend of rapid growth against the trend. This trend has led more and more mobile phone manufacturers to invest in folding screen mobile phones. Recently, Huawei held a media communication meeting on innovative technology of folding flagship. Wang Yonggang, president of Huawei's flagship mobile phone product line, revealed that Huawei has built a "super material laboratory" covering an area of 1,000 square meters, and will continue to increase investment in research and development of folding flagships in the future.

Huawei builds "super material laboratory"

As the leader of the folding screen mobile phone track, Huawei has been innovating in folding technology since launching its first folding screen mobile phone, the Huawei Mate X in 2019, and has launched five generations of folding screen mobile phones.

On April 28, Huawei released a new generation of folding flagship Huawei Mate Xs 2, which achieved breakthroughs in thinness, flatness and reliability. The weight of the whole machine is only 255 grams, which is close to the weight and thickness of ordinary candy bar phones. The dual-rotor eagle-wing hinge is the first in the industry, and the flatness of the screen is 70% higher than that of the MateXs.

The data shows that since its listing, Huawei MateXs2 has been ranked first in consumer praise among mainstream three-party e-commerce platforms in China. In May, the top three sales of folding screen mobile phones in the Chinese market were all from Huawei, including Huawei MateXs2, Huawei P50Pocket and Huawei MateX2.

Wang Yonggang introduced that the outstanding performance of Huawei MateXs2 stems from the empowerment of Huawei's "Super Materials Laboratory". The laboratory has a full-process production line built by the only manufacturer in the industry, including nine types of production equipment and twelve types of monitoring equipment, covering a total area of 1,000 square meters. This production line is not intended for mass production, but only for research materials.

"Through end-to-end innovative research on the composition and process of materials, the laboratory continues to bring industry-leading MIM materials. Relying on the full-process material research capabilities of the 'Super Materials Laboratory', Huawei MateXs2 pioneered a composite support hinge structure , effectively improve the hinge strength, and also improve the mobile phone's anti-fall and impact resistance." Wang Yonggang said.

Wang Yonggang said that Huawei will continue to increase investment in research and development of folding flagships, bring consumers a more extreme user experience, and promote the update and iteration of folding screen mobile phones.

It is also clear that Honor will invest heavily in folding screens. Honor CEO Zhao Ming said that the folding screen represents the future direction, and Honor will continue to develop in terms of folding screens, optimizing in terms of weight, thickness, dual-screen experience, etc. Product forms such as external folding, internal folding, and small folding screens are in Glory's contemplation.

"This will be a new growth area, and Honor must invest in the future." Zhao Ming said, "The folding screen phone gives Honor a chance to overtake in a corner and prove that it can do better than Apple's mobile phone."

In addition, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is testing e-ink screens, which will be used on devices such as folding screen iPhones and iPhones, and use color e-ink screens. Google has also been developing foldable phones.

From "early taste" to "commonly used"

Behind the heavy investment of mobile phone manufacturers is the contrarian expansion of folding screen mobile phones.

Affected by the epidemic, the domestic mobile phone market demand continued to be weak in the first quarter. Data shows that from January to April, the total shipments of mobile phones in the domestic market totaled 87.425 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 30.3%. At the same time, the subdivision track folding screen mobile phone has maintained a rapid growth trend. According to data from the consulting agency DSCC, the total global shipments of folding screen smartphones in the first quarter were 2.22 million units, a year-on-year increase of 571%.

Among them, Samsung continued to dominate the folding screen mobile phone market with a market share of 74%. Huawei's folding screen mobile phone market share increased. In the first quarter, the company's folding screen mobile phone market share was 20%. The fashionable, compact and affordable vertical foldable mobile phone has become a hit. In the first quarter, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 shipments accounted for 60% of the global folding screen mobile phones in 2021, and the Huawei P50 Pocket, which is also a vertical folding screen, also contributed to Huawei’s market share increase.

DSCC said that the folding screen mobile phone market has expanded significantly, and global shipments of foldable smartphones are expected to increase by 107% to over 16 million units this year. CITIC Construction Investment believes that the penetration of folding screen mobile phones will accelerate and will usher in a period of rapid growth. Global shipments of folding screen mobile phones will increase from 5.6 million to 17.2 million in 2021-2022.

In recent years, mobile phone manufacturers have used the folding screen as a "stepping stone" to impact the high-end mobile phone market. The five giants of the Android camp - Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, vivo, have now gathered in the folding screen mobile phone market, and the folding screen of various brands. The starting price of the screen has dropped to less than 10,000 yuan.

CITIC Construction Investment believes that as the price of new folding models continues to drop and the process and materials continue to optimize, consumers' desire to purchase and use will be stimulated, which will drive the penetration of folding screen phones to accelerate, and further drive cost and price reductions.