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Tag: foldable phones

  • Apple Starts Selling US$1,999 IPhone Duo

    Apple Starts Selling US$1,999 IPhone Duo

    Apple began selling its first folding phone, the US$1,999 iPhone Duo, on Friday (Oct 23), betting the device can transform the foldables market after nearly two decades of making only incremental updates to the iPhone.

    The launch marks an early trial for new Apple chief executive officer John Ternus, who unveiled the hardware barely a week after taking charge in September.

    Apple enters a niche segment where rivals such as Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold premium foldables for years.

    Channel Allocations and Asian Retail Constraints

    Within minutes of pre-orders opening on Oct 16, Apple’s estimated delivery dates for the Duo had slipped to late January as demand outpaced supply. The company called the response from customers “nothing short of extraordinary”.

    The limited supplies could disappoint Apple fans lining up in front of stores to buy the Duo. Apple told Reuters that walk-in availability would vary by country, with limited stocks in the US, Australia, Canada, Mexico and much of Britain and Europe. In China, France, Hong Kong, India and Japan, units would be available only for customers who had ordered online. In the China-governed territory of Macau, where the iPhone Duo will be available for walk-in customers only, fans already started lining up hours in advance, social media posts and media reports showed.

    Rivalry With Incumbents in Regional Markets

    Early reviews have praised the US$1,999 Duo’s premium design as well as its sturdy and barely visible hinge, a major feat for the phones whose prominent creased screen has long been a major drawback and potential deterrent to buyers. But reviewers have also said that camera compromises including the absence of a telephoto lens and third-party apps that still need to be reworked for the new display size could disappoint some buyers.

    They have noted that iPhone Duo in its smaller, folded state is less handy for the litany of quick tasks that most users carry out each day on standard iPhones, leading several prominent reviewers to recommend against the Duo for many Apple customers.

    “Foldables have been an established category for years, but adoption has remained relatively limited compared with conventional smartphones. Apple’s entry could bring the format to a much broader audience,” said Francisco Jeronimo, vice-president at market research firm IDC.

    IDC expects Apple will take 44 per cent of the foldable value in 2026 on 31 per cent of foldable units. By 2027, it will become the market leader in the category both in value and units shipped, according to the firm.

    “Apple has made a convincing case for this form factor,” Jeronimo said after spending a week with the Duo. “Now comes the next test: turning excitement into availability, adoption and a lasting new chapter for the smartphone market,” Jeronimo added.

    Executive Leadership and Product History

    “It’s been a lot of fun trying the Duo out for a week, but it feels like I’ve gotten to use an extraordinarily polished prototype, not a finished product that I’d want to buy and carry,” longtime Apple commentator John Gruber, the author of the blog Daring Fireball, wrote in a review.

    Tech commentator Marques Brownlee, popularly known as MKBHD, said in a YouTube review that “if you’re just a regular person who doesn’t do much more than texting, social media and browsing here and there, then it is probably a no”.

    “But if the US$2,000 doesn’t mean much to you, and you like the idea, after the learning curve and getting used to not having facial identification, it is a really fun phone.”

  • Samsung Fights Apple Foldable Push as Counterpoint Projects 25 per Cent Duo Share

    Samsung Fights Apple Foldable Push as Counterpoint Projects 25 per Cent Duo Share

    Samsung launched a marketing blitz across Asia and Europe on Wednesday to protect its premium smartphone business. The campaign follows Apple’s release of its first folding handset, the $1,999 iPhone Duo.

    Apple’s entry puts it in direct competition with the $1,899 Galaxy Z Fold 8. Counterpoint Research expects Apple to capture a 25 per cent global market share this year, cutting into Samsung’s projected 38 per cent share.

    Cupertino designed the Duo with a passport-style layout similar to Samsung’s latest flagship, which runs Alphabet’s Gemini artificial intelligence. Samsung fought back by booking billboards across Seoul, Tokyo and London with slogans like “Welcome to Foldables” and “The World’s Lightest Fold”. It also posted technical notes on its consumer website detailing its hinge and weight reductions.

    The Margin Fight at Two Thousand Dollars

    A narrow $100 price gap shifts the fight to hardware refinement and software ecosystems. For telecom carriers and electronics retailers across Asia, having two players at the $2,000 price point turns foldables from a show into a high-volume margin driver.

    Heavy risks sit with Samsung’s mobile division, which faces margin erosion if affluent buyers in South Korea, Japan and Greater China defect to iOS. Samsung Display supplies the folding screens for the iPhone Duo and collects component revenue on every unit sold. Even so, the handset division loses its most profitable hardware moat.

    Rivalry in Component Supply and Social Media

    Online, Samsung went on the offensive. It ran posts on X describing the Duo as “reheating our leftovers” and “So far, so same”. Apple chief executive John Ternus fired back, calling earlier foldables “like two phones awkwardly stuck together.”

    Industry analysts note that Apple waited for screen mechanics to stabilize before entering the segment. “Apple is good at getting its timing right and entering the market when a product reaches a certain level of maturity,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.

    Seven Years of Category Building

    Samsung created the commercial category in 2019 after display failures delayed the original Galaxy Fold release by several months. Over the next eight device generations, the Suwon-based company improved screen durability and expanded global distribution while battling Chinese rivals like Huawei in domestic and regional markets.

    Stores begin stocking the iPhone Duo later this month. That starts the first direct quarterly sales clash between Apple and Samsung during the peak year-end shopping season.

  • Apple to Unveil First Foldable iPhone as Sector Shipments Grow 30%

    Apple to Unveil First Foldable iPhone as Sector Shipments Grow 30%

    Apple is expected to unveil its maiden foldable iPhone at its Cupertino headquarters later on Wednesday, entering a product category where Asian rivals hold a combined 70 per cent share.

    Samsung leads the global foldable smartphone sector with a share of about 40 per cent, followed by Huawei with 30 per cent, according to research firm Counterpoint.

    The new handset is expected to adopt a wider passport-style aspect ratio geared toward video and media consumption, arriving as supply-chain advances make flexible displays more durable and less prone to creasing.

    Asian Rivals Defend Premium Dominance

    For Samsung and Huawei, Apple’s entry turns a high-margin hardware niche into an open battleground across Asian retail channels. Both manufacturers spent years refining flexible hardware, using early technical missteps to improve hinge durability and lock down premium market share in China, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

    Asian component suppliers and display manufacturers stand to gain volume as Apple scales production. The primary risk sits with Android hardware makers in the upper price tiers, who lose their sole hardware differentiator once iOS software is available on a flexible screen.

    The Long March from Early Hinges

    Chinese display maker Royole shipped the first commercial foldable device in 2018 with its outward-folding FlexPai. Samsung launched the US$2,000 Galaxy Fold in 2019, withdrawing initial review units to redesign the display before releasing refined models such as the Fold 8. Huawei followed with the Mate X in 2019, before pushing hardware boundaries further in September 2024 with a US$2,800 tri-fold model.

    Apple’s entry will surely increase competition at the premium end. However, foldables are still a very small part of the overall smartphone market, so there is room for the category to grow well beyond current volumes.

    Growth Divergence in Handset Shipments

    Foldable devices account for a single-digit percentage of total handset sales, constrained by high retail pricing and consumer doubts over long-term screen durability. Google entered the segment in 2023 with the US$1,799 Pixel Fold, while Microsoft discontinued its dual-screen Surface Duo line.

    Research firm IDC expects global foldable shipments to grow nearly 30 per cent this year, outpacing an estimated 1.4 per cent decline in standard smartphone sales as Apple unveils its device later on Wednesday.

  • Xiaomi Launches 18 Fold Smartphone at 10,999 Yuan with Custom Silicon

    Xiaomi Launches 18 Fold Smartphone at 10,999 Yuan with Custom Silicon

    Xiaomi launched its flagship 18 Fold smartphone in Beijing on Monday, pricing the device from 10,999 yuan (US$1,639) to compete directly with high-end foldables from Huawei and Apple.

    The phone carries Xiaomi’s proprietary Xring O3 processor and LPDDR6 memory from ChangXin Memory Technologies, with sales opening on Thursday at 10am across mainland retail channels.

    Founder and chief executive Lei Jun detailed the hardware specifications at the Beijing presentation. The device includes a 7.58-inch inner display, a reinforced hinge mechanism, an aluminium chassis, and strengthened cover glass. The 24-billion-transistor Xring O3 artificial intelligence processor raises central processor performance by 60 per cent over the prior Xring O1 generation while cutting energy consumption on select workloads by 25 per cent. Lei said Xiaomi has earmarked 50 billion yuan specifically for custom chip development, part of a wider 200 billion yuan research and development budget planned over the next five years.

    Silicon Independence and Electric Vehicle Pricing

    Alongside the phone, Xiaomi rolled out its Pad 9 Pro Max tablet starting at 4,799 yuan, also powered by the Xring O3, and priced its extended-range Skynomad sport utility vehicles. The five-seat N70 Pro SUV starts at 209,900 yuan, while the seven-seat N90 Max begins at 269,900 yuan. Both undercut Tesla’s Model Y L, which retails from 339,000 yuan in China. The extended-range powertrain uses an auxiliary petrol engine to charge the battery pack, delivering a driving range exceeding 1,000 kilometres on a single cycle.

    For consumer tech retailers and premium device vendors across Asia, Xiaomi’s dual offensive in mobile silicon and electric mobility tightens pricing pressure across two categories simultaneously. By pairing domestic memory from CXMT with proprietary processors, the company shields its bill of materials against international component shortages that are squeezing entry-level hardware margins. The aggressive SUV pricing also demonstrates that Xiaomi is treating hardware margins as secondary to ecosystem lock-in, forcing traditional carmakers and handset specialists to defend their retail territory on compressed margins.

    Premium Tier Resists Smartphone Downturn

    The product blitz lands during an intense competitive window in China. Huawei unveiled its Mate XT 2 trifold handset on Monday starting at 19,999 yuan, using its Kirin 9050 Pro processor. Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, confirmed that Huawei has sold more than 1 million trifold devices worldwide. Meanwhile, Apple is scheduled to present its product line-up on Wednesday in California, where analysts anticipate the launch of a foldable model priced above US$2,000.

    This surge in premium launches contrasts sharply with the broader consumer hardware environment. Counterpoint expects global smartphone shipments to contract 12.4 per cent this year, hit by surging memory costs and lengthening replacement cycles among budget consumers. Premium foldables remain an exception. Counterpoint projects cumulative worldwide foldable shipments will cross 100 million units by year-end, with annual category shipments set to expand 37 per cent in 2027.

    Xiaomi built up to this release after spending 105.5 billion yuan on research and development over the past five years and first previewing the Skynomad vehicle architecture in late July. The group had previously rolled out the first-generation Xring O1 chip last year to test its custom silicon pipeline in select devices.

    Market attention now shifts to Thursday morning retail sell-through figures for the 18 Fold, followed by initial delivery volumes for the Skynomad SUV series ahead of fourth-quarter earnings.

  • Samsung wants to double its foldable phone shipments in 2022

    Samsung wants to double its foldable phone shipments in 2022

    It looks like Korean manufacturer Samsung is very serious and confident about the future of its foldable smartphone lineup. According to analyst firm UBI Research the giant manufacturer wants to double its foldable OLED panel production next year.

    Currently, Samsung is said to produce 8.1 million panels in 2021. This should translate into about 8 million foldable phones shipped. The yield rate of assembly lines is reported to be about 80 to 90%, which could result in a lower number.

    Doubling foldable OLED displays’ production to 18 million should translate into about 14 to 16 million foldable phones produced next year. A subsidiary of Samsung Display called Dowoo Insys is the company processing the Ultra-Thin Glass cover needed for the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold devices which is supplied by SCHOTT Germany. It is reported that Samsung is going to set up more production lines in order to double the manufacturing capacity. UBI Research also says foldable panels shipments could reach 49 million units in 2025.

    The increased production of foldable panels will also allow Samsung Display to sell them to other phone manufacturers. Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi and Vivo are said to be looking to get the Samsung panels for their own foldable devices. Rumors about Google and Apple looking into adding a foldable phone to their lineups are also circulating, with Samsung being the obvious choice for a display supplier.

    This year the Korean phone manufacturer was very aggressive as far as its foldable strategy is concerned. Instead of releasing a successor to the 2020 Galaxy Note, it opted for a big release of new foldable phones.

    In August Samsung revealed the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. Both phones offered significant improvements in their foldable display technology and more attractive pricing. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is praised for its versatility and S Pen support, while the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is liked for its looks and pocketable size.

    It is unclear whether Samsung will expand its foldable phone lineup in 2022. An even more affordable folding phone for the masses might be on the horizon. The company is already the leader in this category of devices and such a move could only expand its lead even further. It is also a leader in manufacturing with 91% of all foldable OLEDs in 2021 being made by Samsung Display.