Samsung may be the undisputed leader when it comes to foldable smartphones as it embarked on the foldable journey back in 2019, but soon, it may face competition from its biggest rival, Apple in the segment. However, Apple will start its foldable journey with notebooks and tablets and not with foldable smartphones, the media has reported.
The South Korean tech giant's mobile arm, called the Mobile Experience business, held a meeting to discuss its foldable smartphone strategy with its suppliers in the third week of October, says a report by TheElec. Samsung, in the meeting, mentioned that it expects Apple to join the foldable race in 2024.
Samsung also shared that in the South Korean market, iPhone users in their 20s and 30s were changing their devices to Samsung’s foldable phones at a rate three to four times higher than before. The South Korean handset giant shared with suppliers that it believes the foldable smartphone market will have a CAGR of 80 per cent up to 2025.
Meanwhile, earlier in October, an analyst from CCS Insight predicted that Apple would launch a foldable iPad rather than a foldable iPhone in 2024. CCS Insight mentioned that a foldable iPad would launch before a folding iPhone and buck the trend of consumer electronics companies launching foldable smartphones.
According to Ben Wood, the analyst with CCS Insight, the first foldable iPhone would likely need to cost around $2,500. Currently, the new iPhone 14 Pro Max with the largest storage, also the most expensive model, costs around $1,599. “A folding iPhone will be super high risk for Apple. Firstly, it would have to be incredibly expensive in order to not cannibalize the existing iPhones,” Wood was quoted as saying by CNBC.
The foldable smartphones category is poised to become the fastest-growing smartphone product category this year with the Samsung Galaxy Fold likely to reach 73 per cent YoY growth to 16 million shipment units in 2022, according to Counterpoint Research.