New Year’s Foldable Phone and Rollable Phone Competition Begins

Enter 2020.12.27 06:00

In the global smartphone market, competition among innovative design products is sharply unfolding from the beginning of the new year. Foldable to increase popularity(Folding form) Rollable, an emerging runner on smartphone(Rolling form) Smartphone joins. In the existing smartphone market, bar-type terminals were the most popular, but new types of smartphones challenged themselves and compete for leadership.

The mobile industry predicts that a number of smartphone makers will participate in fierce competition with foldable phones and rollable phones, respectively. As the market is still in full bloom, more foldable phones and rollable phones start to expand their terrain instead of competition in the new year. It is aiming at the market with terminals with their own colors.

Samsung Leading Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi participate in’Foldable Daejeon’

According to the mobile industry on the 26th, there is news that Samsung Electronics, Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei, as well as Google, can launch a foldable phone for the new year.

Samsung Electronics is the leader in the foldable phone industry. According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, Samsung Electronics is expected to ship global foldable phones this year.(2.8 million units)It occupied 73% of the total and ranked first. Following the first introduction of the Galaxy Fold in 2019, this year, the Galaxy Z-flip that folds up and down and the Galaxy Z Fold 2 that folds left and right were introduced, respectively, seizing the market.

Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Z Fold 3 in the second half of the new year(Tentative name)And Galaxy Z Flip 2(Tentative name) It is expected to release a sequel to the foldable such as. In addition, each lowered the price of the light version will be introduced. As we are struggling to increase the sales of foldable phones inside, we plan to make efforts to popularize them with four foldable phones next year. In the new foldable phone, the under display camera hides the front camera inside the display.(UDC) It is expected that technology and S Pen may be installed.

Noh Tae-moon Head of Wireless Business Division, Samsung Electronics(CEO)On the 15th, in its newsroom article, “We will try to diversify and popularize the foldable product line so that more customers can experience innovative foldable devices in 2021.”

Oppo is a triple this month(Three) It introduced a prototype of a foldable phone consisting of a hinge. Earlier in September, Opoga World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO)A crem shell similar to the Galaxy Z flip(Shell) It was revealed that the patent was applied for and approved for a foldable phone in shape. It is expected that the company’s first foldable phone can be released soon based on related technologies.

Huawei and Vivodo each in-fold with a stylus pen(Folded in) We are preparing a foldable phone. Vivo has applied for a related technology patent with WIPO in February and is expected to launch in the second half of the new year. Huawei also previously outfolded only in China(Outside form) It released a foldable phone, but in the new year, it will be released in folding.

Display Supply Chain Consultants, Market Research Firm(DSCC)Ross Young, Chief Executive Officer(CEO)Is 10 days(Local time) On his Twitter account, he said, “It will be interesting in relation to foldable phones in the second half of 2021.”

LG, rollable phone early release? Chinese latecomers also appear one after another

The news of the launch of a rollable phone with LG Electronics as the main focus of the new year also attracts industry attention. There is a prospect that each rollable phone, which was only full of news of the release, can appear to the public.

LG Electronics is the first player in the rollable market. According to the industry, LG Electronics is planning to introduce new products to the outside at CES 2021, which will be held in January of the new year after considering the timing of the recent rollable phone release. LG Electronics is usually held at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​Spain in February.(MWC)Introduced a new smartphone in the first half of the year, but the new coronavirus infection(covid-19) This decision was made as the new year’s MWC was postponed to June due to proliferation.

LG Electronics’ rollable phone is expected to have the best performance. The application processor (AP), the brain of a smartphone, will be equipped with the new flagship AP’Snapdragon 888′, which Qualcomm introduced this month. lamb(RAM)It is expected to have 8GB of silver and a battery capacity of 4200mAh.

Oppo also unveiled its own rollable phone prototype in November before LG Electronics. The product name is Oppo X 2021, and the screen expands from 6.7 inches to 7.4 inches by sweeping down the side of the device. Although it is a prototype, it received attention from the industry by showing the product to the outside world.

Xiaomi has been preparing to launch a rollable phone since 2019. It has applied for related technologies to the US Patent Office and WIPO. It features an ingenious hinge that does not wrinkle the screen and allows the screen to expand up to 200%.

Apple is also a new form factor(Device type) There is a prospect that a rollable phone can be introduced with a smartphone. Some argue that Apple has registered several patents related to foldables and has been inclined to produce foldable phones because of the fact that it has started trial production at its partner Foxconn, but claims that the actual production of the finished product can be a rollable phone.

An official in the securities industry said, “Because Apple is sensitive to the fold lines that are bound to occur in foldable phones, it is not expected that it will start producing foldable phones.” I see.”

Foldable vs. Rollable… Full-fledged competition is still’prematurely’

In the mobile industry, as foldable phones and rollable phones appear at the same time in the new year, there is high interest in where consumers will look. We pay attention to whether it will be the new year that accelerates the popularization of foldable phones, rather than the year that marks the first year of rollable phones.

Some predict that the market will converge to rollable phones, given that rollable technology is superior to the foldable technology that folds the display. It is argued that foldable phones and rollable phones should be viewed as a substitute rather than a confrontational composition.

An official in the mobile industry said, “When foldable phones and rollable phones are spread out in the same size, lines are created for foldable phones, but rollable phones do not, so I think the rollable phones will be chosen in terms of display usability.” “I think people will gradually move to rollable phones.”

In some cases, the material for foldable phones or rollable phones is flexible(Flexible) Explaining that it makes no sense to compare the technologies themselves by picking up the same points on the display. Rather, it is an explanation that there can be a win in the usability of smartphones.

Sangsoo Kim Professor, Sungkyunkwan University(Division of Electronic and Electrical Engineering)“Flexible OLED(OLED)“It is meaningless to compare the technology itself because it is used in both foldable phones and rollable phones.”

Kang Min-soo, chief researcher at Omdia, said, “There is a limit to predicting what kind of composition will be formed with a foldable phone while the rollable phone is not on the market yet. Depending on how the rollable phone actually comes out, it may be equal to or I think I could fall behind.”

Reporter Kim Pyeong-hwa [email protected]

Copyright © IT Chosun.