Electronics

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Google is one of the largest Internet technology companies in the world, and the Android system, which currently dominates the smartphone industry, has a close relationship with it. However, since Google withdrew from Chinese Mainland in 2010, the company has disappeared from the eyes of many netizens. Therefore, many people don't know that Google actually has smart phone products, that is Pixel.

Globally, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO and other mainstream smart phone manufacturers, how does Google perform as a developer of Android system? According to the data of IDC, a market research organization, the shipment volume of Google mobile phones in the first quarter of 2022 was 1.2 million. Although the annual growth rate was as high as 380%, the market share only increased from 1% to about 3%, making it the fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer in North America. With such achievements, Google is not a mainstream mobile phone manufacturer.

However, although the sales volume of Google's mobile phones cannot be compared with that of mainstream manufacturers, its ambition is not high. At present, Google's main mobile phone products are high-end models, and the response of the latest two generations of products seems to be quite good. In addition, there is also news that Google is about to launch a folding screen phone to enrich its product line. Especially in the recent period, many mobile phones with Google folding screen have been leaked. It is reported that Google's folding screen mobile phone was launched in 2023, and Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

1. What changes can Google bring?

Folding screens can greatly change the way we interact with smartphones. As for how to change, many smartphone manufacturers are still exploring, but Google may point out a direction for this exploration.

In the tablet market, Apple's products have obvious advantages. One of the reasons is the relatively poor software adaptation and ecology of Android tablet products, which is also true in the smart watch market. Although various manufacturers are also trying to improve these, if Google can update the Android system in a targeted way for the folding screen phone, promote the development of the folding screen software, and quickly improve the ecology and use experience of the folding screen, then this may be enough to reverse the hesitation attitude of many consumers about the folding screen products at present.

However, the price of folding screen mobile phones may be the main reason to prevent this product from being widely used in the market. In this regard, Google should play a very small role. The most likely result is that we can buy a very cheap Google folding screen in the seafood market a few years later.

2. Market downturn Folding screen becomes market highlight

Under the influence of multiple factors, the overall consumer electronics market in 2022 will be sluggish. According to the quarterly mobile phone tracking report released by IDC, the shipment volume of China's smart phone market dropped by two digits in 2022.

However, from the sales data of major manufacturers, the performance varies. Vivo ranks first in domestic smartphone shipments, followed by Glory, OPPO, Apple and Xiaomi.

"Chinese brands need to continue to layout and develop in the medium and high-end market. Vivo has achieved the first result in the shipment volume of China's smartphone market last year, which is related to its layout in the high-end market. It has performed well in several series with more than 4000 yuan." Ding Shaojiang, chief analyst of GKURC Industrial Economics Think Tank, told reporters that in the future, the competition of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers in the high-end market will become increasingly fierce, It has also become an important factor in brand competitiveness.

With the gradual establishment of Vivo's reputation in the high-end market, the new X90 series has achieved good market performance in the offline market. Sub-brand iQOO grew 26.9% year on year, helping Vivo's online channel competitiveness to continue to strengthen.

Glory is the only one of the top five brands with a year-on-year increase of 34.4%, and the total shipment volume of the whole year rose to the second place. The gradual improvement of the product line layout helped Honor recover completely. After a year of rapid growth, the market share reached a record high. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

It is worth noting that under the overall downturn of the domestic smartphone market last year, the performance of the folding screen market is one of the few highlights. According to the data, in the fourth quarter of 2022, China's single-quarter shipments of folding screen products reached another record high, with more than 1.1 million units shipped. The annual shipment volume was nearly 3.3 million units, with a year-on-year increase of 118%, higher than expected. The share of folding screen products in the domestic smart machine market rose from 0.5% in 2021 to 1.2%. In 2022, Huawei firmly occupied the first position in the domestic folding screen market, with a market share of 47.4%; OPPO gained 13.8% of the market share by virtue of the single product performance of Find N, ranking third, and quickly approached Samsung's market position (accounting for 16.5% of the market share).

3. Collaborative tackling of industrial chain

Although the sales of fold-screen mobile phones have surged and become one of the few bright spots in the smartphone market, the current user penetration rate of fold-screen mobile phones is less than 1%, and the growth potential remains to be explored. Wang Haoyue believes that although the folding screen mobile phone will not become the mainstream product in the whole mobile phone market according to its market positioning, it is expected that the folding screen mobile phone will hit a large market share in the next five years in the high-end market. In 2023, with the continuous entry of mobile phone manufacturers, the market competition will continue to intensify, and the shipment volume of folding screen mobile phones will continue to grow at a high speed, ushering in the first year of real explosion.

"Benefiting from the dividend of global mobile phone brand shipments, as the new trend and fashion of the future development of smart phones, it integrates a number of technological innovations and high-value folding screen phones. The size of China's market is expected to grow to 4.2 million by 2023, and to exceed 11 million by 2025. From 2021 to 2025, the annual composite growth rate of China's folding screen mobile phone market shipments will reach 95%." Wang Liping said, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

On the one hand, the industrial chain will be more mature. From the perspective of key links in the industrial chain, the promotion of research and development of key components such as hinges, cover plates and flexible panels is an important factor to promote the further maturity of the folding screen market, such as BOE BOE's exploration in the field of flexible screens, and the layout of domestic suppliers such as Changyang Technology and Kaisheng Technology in the field of UTG glass cover plates. In addition, thanks to the joint promotion of hinge design schemes by mobile phone manufacturers and Amphenol Feifeng and other supply chain manufacturers, the number of hinge patent applications has increased rapidly, helping the rapid iteration and optimization of hinge design.

"The design of the folding screen mobile phone will be lighter and more exquisite." Wang Liping believes that the hinge is the key component that affects the smoothness of the folding and the smoothness of the opening and closing of the mobile phone, and is the key technology iteration component of the folding screen mobile phone. In the future, with the maturity of hinge-related technologies, in order to highlight their own advantages, manufacturers of various brands will introduce more innovative folding screen mobile phones, so as to promote the continuous development of the industry. At the same time, with the efforts of the head panel manufacturers and terminal brands, the technical problems such as the fragility of the mobile phone screen and the display adaptation will continue to be solved, and the screen material will continue to be upgraded; The advantages of folding screen will be more prominent, and there will be better innovation and improvement space in terms of interface interaction design, application use freedom, and so on, so as to bring better use experience for mobile phone users with folding screen.

On the other hand, the price of folding screen mobile phones is still falling. With the continuous progress of key materials and technological processes such as UTG and hinge, as well as the joint efforts of all parties in the industry chain to superimpose continuous new products, in the context of the continuous expansion of the market scale, the upstream of the industry chain of key materials for folding screen mobile phones will also have greater scale effect and lower cost space. The future price decline trend of folding screen mobile phones is certain, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.