Global folding screen mobile phone shipments increased from 198,000 units in 2018 to 2.8 million units in 2020, and are expected to reach 7.5 million units in 2021 (+188% year-on-year). Folding mobile phones with multi-purpose, flexible and other characteristics, we are optimistic about the market technology maturity after the cost decline, it is expected that the future vertical fold dominates, the mainstream price band is expected to drop to 5000-8000 yuan, and with the price center down, the folding screen mobile phone market is expected to maintain rapid growth, it is expected that the shipment volume in 2025 is expected to exceed 65 million units, 2020-2025 CAGR90%+. Terminal brand is currently "one super, one giant, more powerful" pattern, the short-term market is still dominated by Samsung, 2022 or occupy 60%-65% of the share; Apple is expected to form a double male hegemonic situation after entering the game, we expect that by 2025, Samsung, Apple folding screen mobile phones will occupy 35%-40% of the share, looking back, Apple's market share is still expected to further increase, while Xiaomi, Glory, OPPO, vivo and other manufacturers Market share is expected to be about 7%-8%, 4%-5%, 5%-6%, respectively, 4%-5% 。
In this issue of intelligent internal reference, we recommend the report of CITIC Securities "Giant Leadership, Multi-brand Following, Folding Industry Chain Welcomes Great Upgrade" to decipher the latest development trend of the folding screen industry.
Source CITIC Securities
Original title:
"Giant leadership, multi-brand following, folding industry chain to meet the big upgrade"
Author: Xu Tao/Hu Ye Qianwen, etc
First, the folding screen industry overview
Foldable intelligent terminal equipment: refers to the display form of foldable intelligent terminal products through hinges, flexible screens and other bendable parts. At present, it is mainly developed around smart phone products, and the whole machine manufacturers have also increased the development of foldable tablet PCs, foldable notebooks and other products.
Folding screen phones can increase the display area by nearly 50%, while increasing the number of screens, users can choose a single screen or multi-screen combination.
Three folding forms: horizontal inward folding: small bending radius, the need for higher service life of flexible screens, difficult to achieve, high technical costs, can better protect the screen. Horizontal folding is divided into inner screen and outer screen, the outer screen is suitable for the use of traditional mobile phones, the inner screen provides a larger display area, combined with the dual functions of mobile phones and tablets, suitable for business use scenarios.
Horizontal folding: The display is more convenient, but it is easy to damage; the price of the horizontal folding screen is usually lower than the price of the horizontal folding screen. Horizontal folding is only equipped with an external screen, the screen display area is larger, more suitable for movies, games, business and other use scenarios.
Vertical fold: When unfolded, the size of the mobile phone is not much different from that of the traditional smart phone, and the volume becomes smaller after folding, which is convenient for carrying. Vertical folds are designed for lightness, and the small external screen provides simple functions such as notifications and alarms when folded, making it more widely suitable for most user scenarios.
In 2012, Kyocera released the KS8000, folding mobile phone began to take shape (Note: composed of two independent screens, not a single-screen folding mobile phone in the current sense): The earliest folding mobile phone is the KS8000 released by Kyocera in 2012, using two independent 3.5-inch TFT-LCD screens, each with a resolution of 800×480, and the visual size after the combination is 4.7 inches, which can be switched between single-screen mode, tablet mode, and multi-task mode. (ZTE AXONM, released in 2017, also falls into this category).)
In 2013, Samsung released a single-screen folding concept machine: In January 2013, when Samsung launched its bendable OLED screen product line "Youm" at CES, it also exhibited a folding screen concept phone that can be bent arbitrarily, which is equivalent to the size of a tablet after unfolding, but the phone has not been mass-produced.
2019 is the first year of the mass production of folding screen mobile phones, and since 2021, many manufacturers have successively entered the game, and the folding screen market has entered a period of large-scale development:
In 2018, Royole released the first consumer-grade folding screen mobile phone, which was mass-produced in the first quarter of 2019;
In 2019, Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola successively released folding screen mobile phones, and folding screen mobile phones ushered in the first year of mass production; among them, Huawei's first folding screen mobile phone Mate X adopts eagle wing folding design, so that the internal and external screens are completely fitted after folding, and make greater contributions in folding form.
In 2020, Samsung launched the Vertical Fold Galaxy Z Flip series, which is convenient and affordable for benchmarking, and the price of the full series of Flip is below 10,000 yuan; Huawei continues to use horizontal folding iteration to launch Mate Xs. Samsung and Huawei occupy most of the folding screen market with products and influence, rapid update iteration; in addition to the mobile phone market, LG released a curlable TV in 2020, Lenovo released a folding screen computer ThinkPad X1 Fold, and folding screen products gradually shined on other terminal devices.
In 2021, Xiaomi, OPPO and other mobile phone manufacturers have successively entered the game, Huawei has entered the vertical folding market, released P50 Pocket, and the folding screen market has continued to increase volume, entering a period of large-scale development.
Second, the market size and terminal brand tracking
Total shipments: Global folding screen mobile phone shipments increased from 198,000 units in 2018 to 2.8 million units in 2020, with a CAGR of +276%. Downstream channels: In the early stage, due to the limited production capacity of folding screen mobile phones, mobile phone manufacturers mostly use the "offline physical experience + online booking purchase" method for product promotion and sales, in 2019, more than 90% of China's folding screen mobile phones sold through online channels. Considering the high cost of offline warehousing and logistics and the cultivation of consumers' online consumption habits, we believe that online consumption is still expected to occupy the mainstream, but offline channels still have a strong publicity and promotion effect.
User portraits: According to the big data and guanyan world data, 79% of China's folding screen mobile phone users are male, 62% are between 30-45 years old, and are mainly first-line consumer city users such as Beijing and Shanghai.
▲Global folding screen mobile phone shipments (10,000 units)
▲2019 China folding screen mobile phone sales channels (%)
1. Samsung
Samsung opens the folding screen mobile phone commercial precedent, the three major product lines go hand in hand, stable iteration of new products. Sub-product line view: Z FOLD series: for high-end business people, has been iterative 3 generations, the starting price is 15998/16999/14999 yuan, of which the Galaxy Fold is the first large-scale commercial folding phone; GalaxyZ Fold3 is the world's first UDC folding screen + the world's first folding screen supporting SPen + the world's first IPx8 level waterproof folding screen.
Z Flip series: positioning light luxury fashion, compared to most folding screen mobile phones have a good price advantage, has been iterated for 2 generations, starting at 11999/7599 yuan respectively. Among them, the Galaxy Z Flip is the first folding mobile phone to use UTG as a cover material; the Galaxy Z Flip3 reduces the price of folding mobile phones to the level of non-folding flagships (7000-8000 yuan), which greatly increases sales.
W series: For Samsung and China Telecom launched the ultra-high-end mobile phone heart to the world series, for high-level government and enterprises, has been iterated to the 3rd generation of folding products (the 14th generation of the heart of the world), the starting price is 19999/19999/16999 yuan. In terms of product positioning, the W series is in line with the Z Fold series, but the positioning is more high-end. For example, compared with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 (14999 yuan), the Samsung W22 (16999 yuan) mainly contains three major upgrades in terms of hardware: gold reel frame, ceramic body (Fold3 is glass), and 16G memory (Fold3 is 12G).
Samsung folding screen mobile phone shipments high growth: 2019: shipments of 400,000-500,000 units;
2020: 2 million units shipped, accounting for about 0.7% of Samsung's overall sales; 2021: According to Samsung's planning and the current status of the industrial chain, it is estimated that its folding screen mobile phone is expected to ship 5.8 million units, accounting for about 2.7% of its overall mobile phone sales;
2022: According to THEELEC, Samsung plans to ship 13 million folding screen phones in 2022, including 9.2 million Galaxy Z Flip series and 3.8 million Galaxy Z Fold series.
Samsung folding screen mobile phone market share ranks first in the world: according to Qunzhi Consulting data, the global market share of Samsung folding screen mobile phones in 2020 is about 77%; we expect that its share will remain stable at 75% to 80% in 2021; by 2022, after Apple enters the market, the share may drop slightly to 60% to 65%, still the absolute leader in the industry.
▲Samsung mobile phone shipments in 2015-2020 (million units)
▲Global market share of Samsung mobile phones from 2015 to 2020
▲2019-2025 Samsung folding mobile phone shipments (10,000 units)
▲The global market share of Samsung folding mobile phones in 2020-2022
From the supply chain point of view, Samsung has the world's most complete folding mobile phone supply chain team, with a strong supply chain control capabilities, can start from component production, top-down planning products: panel: the use of Samsung Electronics subsidiary Samsung display of flexible OLED panel;
OCA: Samsung SDI, a subsidiary within the Group, developed the world's first OCA glue for foldable mobile phones in 2018, folding more than 200,000 times, and the OCA glue used by Samsung Fold was exclusively supplied by Samsung SDI;
UTG: Previously exclusively supplied by Samsung Display, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics (Samsung Display purchased SCHOTT's glass master, and then Samsung Display Holding Subsidiary Dwooinsys carried out thinning processing and then supplied to Samsung Electronics); in October 2021, Samsung Electronics announced that it had cooperated with Corning to achieve UTG self-production, with Corning providing the original glass sheet, and Korean panel parts supplier Econy for thinning, which has been applied to Z Flip 3;
Hinge: Before 2020, Hanchang KH Vatec is its exclusive supplier, and since 2021, Hanchang S-connect has entered the supply chain, supplying Z Fold 3 5G, Z Flip 3 5G, W22 5G and other products. Looking forward to the future, it is optimistic that Samsung will actively carry out market education in the field of folding mobile phones in the future, and in the future, Samsung may continue to enjoy the development dividends of the folding screen mobile phone industry chain from both internal and external aspects.
Internally, the development of folding screen mobile phones with high-end mobile phone positioning: In the future, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold folding screen series is expected to gradually replace the previous Note series (as a reference, the shipment volume of Samsung Galaxy Note series in 2019/2020 is 12.7 million/9.7 million units), and folding screen mobile phones will continue to iterate as Samsung's core high-end products. We are optimistic about Samsung's future further education market in folding screen mobile phone products, considering that Z Fold focuses on high-end business, Z Flip focuses on affordable fashion, in the long run, we think That Fold, Flip sales are expected to account for close to about 3:7.
Externally, or release more key components to supply other manufacturers: in the future, Samsung's flexible OLED panels, UTG solutions, hinged solutions and other parts are expected to introduce more terminal mobile phone brand customers, empower other brands, open up more growth space for the folding screen mobile phone market, and enjoy the industry development dividend.
2. Huawei
Product development: domestic folding screen faucet, the main high-end business model, is currently making up for the affordable portable model. Product positioning: At present, Huawei folding screen mobile phone has two major product lines, of which the company's Mate X series models position high-end business, has been iterated to the third generation, the starting price of the three generations of products are 16999/16999/17999 yuan; the P50 Pocket released on December 23, 2021 is the main light luxury and women's market, starting at 8988 yuan.
Product design: the cover materials are currently CPI scheme; folding method, the initial use of horizontal folding, from Mate X2 to horizontal folding, P50 Pocket using vertical inward folding scheme, product folding form is constantly enriched.
Patent layout: Huawei actively explores other folding forms, in addition to horizontal and vertical double folding, it also lays out patents such as horizontal triple folding and scroll screen.
Shipment data: Expected to remain in the order of millions for 22 years. According to Qunzhi Consulting, Huawei's folding screen mobile phone sales will be about 400,000 units in 2020, with a global market share of about 15%; we expect Huawei to achieve sales of about 1 million/1 million units in 2021-2022, mainly subject to the supply of main chips, with a global market share of about 13%/7% respectively.
Future outlook: Optimistic about Huawei's multiple advantages in hardware ecology + brand effect + technology layout, but also need to pay attention to the impact of 5G-related chip supply on its folding screen product volume in the future. We believe that Huawei's folding screen products have multiple advantages: technically, Mate X2 adopts a self-developed double-spin water drop hinge structure, and the crease problem is better controlled; ecologically, the company has a mature cross-terminal multi-screen collaborative solution design; in terms of brand, the brand positioning of Huawei's high-end products is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in China and has higher user loyalty. But on the other hand, with the acceleration of 5G mobile phone penetration, it is also necessary to pay attention to the impact of 5G-related chip supply on the company's mobile phone product volume in the future.
▲Huawei folding screen mobile phone shipments (10,000 units)
3. Xiaomi
Product development: Folding products focus on cost-effective commercial flagships, promoting the continuous sinking of the market. Product positioning: Xiaomi's first folding screen mobile phone was launched in March 2021, using a horizontal in-folding scheme, priced at 9999 yuan (12GB + 256GB), positioned as a cost-effective business flagship product. Qunzhi Consulting expects Xiaomi to launch an upgraded version of the second folding screen model in 2022Q1.
Product design: on the cover material, the first generation of products using CPI scheme, Qunzhi expects that the second generation of products will be changed from CPI to UTT scheme; folding mode, it is expected that the second generation of products is still horizontally folded design; in hardware, MIX Fold is equipped with liquid telephoto lens + independent ISP chip surging C1, comprehensively enhance the user shooting experience; in terms of software, MIX Fold provides a one-key stealth function, which can force off all cameras, microphones and GPS positioning. In addition, it provides a desktop mode that allows you to enter a Windows 10-like interface with three fingers, reinforcing its business flagship attributes.
Patent layout: In addition to horizontal folding products, Xiaomi also actively layouts patents such as vertical folding and surround screens.
Shipment data: We expect xiaomi folding screen mobile phone sales of about 200,000 units in 2021, with a market share of about 3%; it is expected that the shipment volume in 2022 will reach 2 million units +, and the market share is expected to reach 10%+. Future outlook: Considering that Xiaomi has only launched a horizontal in-fold product at present, it is optimistic that Xiaomi will launch more form folding products based on its patent layout (especially vertical folding, when the price is expected to be further reduced), further improve the product line, and promote the parity of folding screen mobile phones.
▲Xiaomi folding screen mobile phone shipments (10,000 units)
4、OPPO
Product development: The first domestic UTG product, Find N, has been released on December 15, 2021, focusing on the affordable route and exploring the best screen area solutions. Product positioning: In October 2020, OPPO released the scroll screen concept machine, which is a horizontal scroll form; in December 2021, OPPO released the first folding screen model OPPO Find N, starting at 7699 yuan. The model is positioned at a parity (currently one of the few horizontal folding products priced below 8000) + relatively small (5.49 inches in the folded state, about 6.5 inches for the same type of products; only 7.1 inches in the unfolded state, about 8 inches for the same type of products), and is committed to exploring the best screen form for folding products in the future.
Product design: design to meet the pain points, (1) hardware end: hinge, the product is equipped with the world's first Seiko quasi-vertebral hinge (supplier is Hangzhou Ampeino Feifeng Communication, including 136 parts, single parts processing accuracy up to 0.01 mm), up to reduce up to 80% of visual creases, and can provide users with multi-angle free hover function, a single cost of nearly 800 yuan, is three times the cost of ordinary hinges.
In terms of cover, OPPO Find N is the first folding model in China to adopt a UTT cover, which can withstand millions of folds. In terms of screen, the inner screen adopts a mirror folding screen that supports 120Hz refresh rate to provide a smooth sliding experience. (2) Software side: The built-in ColorOS 12 has specially optimized the OPPO Find N folding screen, introducing four-finger floating window, split screen combination, parallel window and other functions to improve efficiency.
Patent layout: Actively explore diversified screen forms, and have relevant patent layouts in horizontal scrolls, vertical scrolls, vertical inward folding, and surround screens.
Shipment data: We expect OPPO Find N to reach approximately 80-1 million unit shipments in 2022. Future outlook: Considering that OPPO has a relatively sufficient patent layout in the exploration of mobile phone screen forms in recent years, we expect oppo to continue to further layout more screen form products (vertical folding, scroll screens, surround screens, etc.) along the parity route to explore the best screen solutions.
▲OPPO Find N
▲OPPO folding screen mobile phone shipments (10,000 units)
5. Apple
Product development: Apple's first folding screen mobile phone is expected to come out in 2023. According to industry research and forecasts, the main features of the product are as follows: Product positioning: We expect Apple folding screen products or based on high-end, becoming the largest variable in the future high-end folding screen mobile phone market.
Product design: According to LetsGoDigital, Apple's first folding mobile phone or uses the form of folding up and down, and will use invisible hinge design, the phone unfolding size in 7.5 to 8 inches. The phone may use a three-camera setup, the camera next to the secondary screen to display information, the front of the fuselage or the use of the technical standards of the under-screen camera.
Patent layout: In addition to the longitudinal inverted folding form of products, Apple has laid out double folding (the screen can be folded into S-shaped and G-shaped), asymmetrical folding and other patents.
Shipment data: Apple may launch the first folding screen mobile phone in 2023, and it is expected to ship about 10 million units that year. Future outlook: At present, a major shortcoming of folding screen mobile phones is that there are fewer applications at the just-needed level and the corresponding ecology is lacking. Apple has the advantage of software and hardware ecological integration, and the future entry is expected to realize the ecological interconnection between mobile phones, tablets and laptops on folding mobile phones, accelerating the blurring of the gap between mobile phones, PCs and tablets. Optimistic about Apple's competitive advantage in folding screen mobile phones, Apple may become the biggest variable in the market competition pattern of folding screen mobile phones in the future.
6. Glory
Product development: Honor has a left and right folding and up and down folding product planning, the first folding screen model Magic V or released before the Spring Festival this year. Product positioning: Honor Official Micro officially announced at the end of 21 that its first folding screen mobile phone was named "Honor MagicV", and we predict that its left and right folding screen models (Magic V) will be released before the Spring Festival, and its shape is similar to Huawei Mate X2; the upper and lower folding screen models (Magic Wing) are expected to be released in the second half of 22 years. Under the current trend of folding screen mobile phone parity, it is expected that the first folding screen model of Honor may be positioned below 10,000 yuan.
Product design: It is believed that Honor's first folding screen mobile phone Magic V will use a horizontal inversion scheme, of which the internal folding main screen is 8 inches, and the external secondary screen is 6.5 inches; in terms of cover materials, Magic V is expected to use the CPI program, and the Wing series is expected to move towards the UTT program.
Patent layout: not only the folding form, but also the layout of the scroll wrapping screen patent. Honor applied for a patent for the appearance of a scroll surround screen mobile phone in 2020, according to the patent, this is a model similar to the design of the surround screen, while also taking into account the design of the scroll screen, that is, the phone can be pulled horizontally, and the overall border is extremely narrow.
Shipment data: It is expected that the shipment volume of honor folding screen mobile phones in 2022 is expected to reach 500,000 units, and the follow-up iteration is expected to achieve double growth, and the global market share is expected to reach 5% in 2025.
Third, the industrial chain company and the layout status
1. Flexible OLED display panel
Pattern status: OLED investment layout is concentrated in South Korea and China, of which Samsung shows that it is the leader, and mainland manufacturers led by BOE are actively catching up. Globally, in 2019, Samsung occupies 81.6% of the flexible OLED market share, LG occupies 7.4% of the share; on the mainland side, BOE leads, Huaxing Optoelectronics, Visionox, Shenzhen Tianma and other follow-up, of which, in 2019, BOE/ Visionox / Shenzhen Tianma Global Flexible OLED production capacity accounted for 9.5% / 1.3% / 0.2% respectively; Taiwanese manufacturers such as AUO, Innolux, Hon Hai and other expansion cautious, basically in the original production line to do technological upgrades; Japanese manufacturers are choosing small-scale production.
In terms of yield, in recent years, the yield rate of mainland OLED panel manufacturers represented by BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics has continued to climb, and DSCC expects that the yield of Samsung OLED panels will reach about 80% in 2023, and the yield rate of OLED panels of mainland manufacturers will mainly be between 70% and 80%, and the gap with international leading manufacturers will be further narrowed.
▲Shipment share of mainland flexible OLED manufacturers in 2019
▲Shipment share of global flexible OLED manufacturers in 2019
▲Yield forecast of major global OLED production enterprises
Pattern outlook: We are optimistic about the domestic manufacturers' flexible OLED production capacity climbing and market share increase, it is expected that in 2022 China is expected to become the largest OLED production capacity country, of which flexible OLED production capacity accounted for 40% + globally. According to OLED Industry statistics, there are 12 6 generation lines under construction and under construction in Chinese mainland, with a total production capacity of more than 500,000 pieces per month after full production.
According to IHS forecasts, with the release of domestic OLED production capacity, by 2022 Chinese mainland total OLED panel production capacity will account for nearly 45% of the world, when China will be expected to replace South Korea as the world's largest supplier of OLED panels, of which the proportion of flexible OLED production capacity in the mainland will be further increased to 40%+.
▲Domestic main flexible OLED production line planning
▲Global flexible OLED production capacity distribution in 2022
2. Protect the cover
CPI: Monopolized by Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, South Korea's KOLON and other companies, domestic Dinglong shares, Danbang Technology, Times New Materials, Zhongtian Technology, Selen Technology have also begun to layout, but have not yet achieved mass production.
KOLON, South Korea: Cologne Industry took the lead in developing the CPI film in July 2016, and the film products have been supplied to Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Royole and other smart phone manufacturers, and in 2021, the Mix Fold, the first foldable mobile phone used in Xiaomi, and Lenovo's world's first foldable laptop, lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold, making CPI used for medium and large foldable display panels for the first time.
Sumitomo Chemical of Japan: CPI membrane transparency reaches more than 90%, can achieve 200,000 folds, and won the CPI film order of Samsung Galaxy Fold in competition with KOLON.
UTG original film pattern (non-thinning route): Ultra-thin original sheet is produced directly by pull-down or overflow melting process. At present, the raw material factories that can mass-produce ultra-thin glass are still a minority, mainly in SCHOTT, Germany, while Japan's electrical glass and the United States Corning also have certain industrialization capabilities. Under the high technical barriers, the trend of strong Hengqiang is obvious, and we believe that overseas leading manufacturers such as SCHOTT are expected to continue to lead by virtue of technical reserves and the first-mover advantage of importing customers; domestic ultra-thin flexible glass still needs to be further breakthroughs in the medium and long term.
UTG thinning pattern (thinning route): Glass thinning technology is used to thin the original glass sheet of a thick plate of more than 0.1 mm to a specific thickness of less than 0.1 mm, and then the post-cover process is carried out. This solution has cost-effective advantages, mainly based on South Korea's DoloInsys and domestic enterprises Changxin Technology, Kaisheng Technology, Vogue Optoelectronics, etc. The cost-effective advantage of the thinning route is outstanding, and we are optimistic about the leading manufacturers with the advantages of production capacity and technical reserves.
Future trend analysis: Considering that the localization supply of UTG ultra-thin flexible glass is still relatively limited, and compared with the direct production of thin glass, the thinning cost of thick glass is lower and the yield rate is higher, we believe that the thinning route will continue to expand the space in China in the future; the non-thinning route will continue to develop in overseas brands.
3. OCA optical adhesive
U.S., Japanese, and Korean manufacturers started earlier, mastered core technologies, controlled the high-end brand market, and domestic manufacturers gradually cut into the repair market. The first echelon is the United States 3M, Mitsubishi mainly, the market share of 60%+, of which 3M production capacity is mainly supplied to traditional liquid crystal display manufacturers, occupying the highest-end market;
The second echelon is Japanese, Korean and Taiwan manufacturers, Japan is mainly Ildong Electric, South Korea is LG Chem and SKC, and Taiwan manufacturers are Changxing Technology. The products of this echelon manufacturer are mainly used for low-end touch screens, with a total market share of 30%+.
The third echelon is the mainland manufacturers, mainly in Steike, Fansett, Selen Technology, Jinghua New Materials, etc., which are currently unable to produce fully fitted products, and the products are mainly used for the shipment repair market. Considering that the display touch industry chain is gradually moving eastward, mainland OCA manufacturers have comprehensive advantages in after-sales response speed, delivery cycle, and product improvement, and as the mainland manufacturers' processes become more mature, the increase in OCA localization rate is the general trend.
▲2020 China display panel with OCA shipment ranking
4. Touch conductive film
Nano silver wire: the process technology and industrialization layout are relatively mature, the industry competition is fierce, and domestic and foreign enterprises compete together. Foreign countries mainly include Cambrios (the earliest engaged in nano silver wire conductive film research and mass production of enterprises), C3nano, the main domestic mainly include Huake Chuangzhi, Nofi nano, microcrystalline technology and so on.
Cambrios is currently the most important nano-silver patent owner, and almost all of the top 10 patents with the most cited times in the industry come from this company. Cambrios has signed a patent mutual opening agreement with Suzhou Nofi, a powerful domestic enterprise, with the intention of jointly building an industry leader. In addition, Cambrios and TPK have established a joint venture in China, forming a complete business chain from nano-silver materials to touch modules.
5. Hinge
Hinge is one of the core structures of foldable terminals, the need to use MIM, liquid metal and other processes, is currently mainly provided by South Korean suppliers mature programs (such as KHVatec, SConnect, etc.), mainly using foreign mature programs, Amphenol for OPPO Find N supply hinges; the mainland leading manufacturers also have corresponding technology and customer reserves.
In China, Jingyan Technology is the main supplier of HUAWEI folding screen mobile phone MIM hinge, and is currently developing, specimen and trial production of folding screen mobile phone hinge parts and components for major customers; Changying Precision said as early as February 2019 that it was developing hinge components for a variety of standard foldable screen mobile phones such as external folding and internal folding for many customers; Kesen Technology laptop hinge products have been produced for many years, and the hinge of folding screen products has not yet entered the mass production stage.
Zhi Dong believes that the most important symbol of the evolution of mobile phones from feature phones to smart phones is the screen, and in 2007, apple iPhones were born, and smart phones began to develop towards touch and large screens, and gradually eliminated physical keyboards. Now, mobile phones have encountered bottlenecks in the pursuit of large screens, and folding screens have solved the contradiction between large screens and portability. Although the concept of folding screen has been more or less controversial since its inception, it seems that the trend of folding screens on mobile phones has become the trend of the times.