[아이뉴스24 장유미 기자] As Chinese smartphone makers are expected to enter the competition for the launch of foldable phones in earnest this year, expectations for the expansion of the foldable phone panel market are growing.
In particular, Samsung Display, which has an absolute dominance in the market, is expected to supply products to other smartphone makers in addition to Samsung Electronics from this year, leading to a significant increase in sales.
According to the industry on the 22nd, Samsung Display will supply foldable displays to Chinese smartphone makers starting in the third quarter. Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo plan to release foldable phones one after another to target the premium market this year, and it is known that they will use Samsung Display’s foldable display.
An industry insider said, “I know that Samsung Display plans to supply two types of panels, such as’Fold’ that folds left and right and’Flip’ that folds up and down, to some Chinese manufacturers.” “If foldable phones become popular in the Chinese market, Shipments are expected to increase significantly.”
The foldable display was first released by Royol in China, but it was difficult to evaluate that it was successfully commercialized. In 2019, the first year of commercialization, only 4,000 foldable displays were shipped by Royol.
Accordingly, in the market, it was evaluated that Samsung Display, which had Samsung Electronics on its back, pioneered the foldable display market. This is because shipments of Samsung Display, which supply foldable displays, have also increased sharply after Samsung Electronics launched the’Galaxy Z Fold’ in February 2019.
According to market research firm Omdia, Samsung Display’s product shipments reached 750,000 units in 2019 and 4.1 million units in 2020. In particular, considering that last year’s global foldable display shipments were 4.18 million units, the market share reached 98%. In addition, the shipments of latecomers, BOE and China Star, were only 57,000 units and 22,000 units, respectively.
The situation is no different this year. In the first quarter of this year, foldable display shipments by each company were 1.8 million units from Samsung Electronics, while 20,000 units from BOE. China Star and Royol have no plans to ship.
In the industry, as the foldable display market expands rapidly this year, Samsung Display, which maintains a monopoly system, is expected to achieve good results. Samsung Electronics, the largest retailer of this year, announced’popularization of foldables’ as a strategy to target the mobile market this year, and announced the strengthening of the’Galaxy Z Fold/Flip’ lineup, and Chinese companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo are also It is because he is eager to launch a new phone.
Thanks to this, there is also a positive outlook for the foldable display market. From the third quarter of this year when Samsung Display starts supplying to Chinese smartphone makers, shipments are expected to increase 3.7 times from the previous quarter to 5658,000 units. As a result, the total foldable display shipments were 12.64 million units this year, 21.11 million units in 2021, 3217 million units in 2023, 40.8 million units in 2024, 52.18 million units in 2025, and 10 million units annually. The size of the market is expected to increase.
In this atmosphere, LG Display is also aiming to enter the market. LG Display has not released a foldable display for mobile so far, but it is receiving high attention from the industry because it is known that Apple has recently entrusted its patent-based development project to this place. It is known that this was done by suggesting to Apple first after LG Display entered the iPhone supply chain.
It is reported that LG Display has begun developing a foldable display for Apple in Korea since last fall, and has formed a separate organization for this purpose. Here, it is known that the folding technology specified in the patent filed by Apple is actually implemented, while development is in progress focusing on quality enhancement work. The product currently under development is in the form of’in-folding’, and LG Display is expected to order equipment necessary for the related process in order to expand the production of prototypes as early as June.
An industry insider said, “Apple’s decision in this way seems to have a price competition with Samsung Display. As Samsung Display, which secured Samsung Electronics and Apple as two major customers, has an absolute edge in the market based on its excellent technology, LG It will not be easy for display and other competitors to go beyond this.”
Reporter Jang Yoomi [email protected]