Huawei's three-fold screen mobile phone is still "hard to find" Many mobile phone manufacturers reserve folding screen patent technology

CCTV Beijing, October 12 (Reporter Niu Guyue) Huawei's first three-fold screen mobile phone, Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master, has been officially released for more than a month, and it is still "hard to find". The reporter learned that consumers need to buy regularly through the official mall, or register in the offline store to buy. On social platforms, there are also many bloggers who post "Huawei Three-Fold Rush Buying Strategy" to share their rush buying experience.

Behind the rush to buy Huawei's three folding screen mobile phones, it reflects the continuous improvement of the market's acceptance of folding screen mobile phones, and the continuous breakthrough of folding screen technology of mobile phone manufacturers. The reporter learned that in addition to Huawei, there are currently many manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Honor, and TCL that reserve folding screen technology, and many folding screen industry chain companies express optimism about the future. The research report of Guojin Securities pointed out that with the transformation of folding screen smartphone parts from highly customized to standardized and modular supply mode, the product manufacturing process is streamlined, and the production efficiency and yield rate are improved, which is expected to bring economies of scale, effectively reduce the overall manufacturing cost of folding screen mobile phones, and accelerate industry penetration.

Huawei's three-fold screen mobile phone sparked a rush to buy

"Reservations are no longer accepted, and only purchase intentions are registered at present." When the reporter consulted the staff of Huawei's authorized experience store Beijing Huiju Center store as a consumer to buy Huawei's first three-fold screen mobile phone, the staff said that there is no stock in the store at present, and because the mobile phone is less in stock in the store and there are too many reservations, the store will no longer accept reservations, only register the purchase intention, and cannot guarantee the time of arrival and purchase. The customer service of Huawei's Tmall flagship store said that this mobile phone is not in stock for the time being, but it will be put on the shelves from time to time, and consumers can pay attention to the next sale time displayed on the product page. Online "no seconds", offline "out of stock", folding screen mobile phones set off a wave of rush to buy.

In fact, in recent years, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have made efforts to fold screen technology and enrich product series. In the past year, many domestic mobile phone brands such as Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have successively launched folding screen products. Huawei Pocket 2, vivo X Fold3, OPPO Find N, Honor Magic V3 and Magic Vs3, Xiaomi MIX Fold 4 and other folding screen mobile phone products have been launched one after another, from horizontal folding to vertical folding, from dual screen folding to today's triple folding, and even in the future, there will be four folding screens, detachable rotating folding screens...... The folding screen mobile phone market can be described as "a hundred flowers blooming".

IDC data shows that from the third quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2024, the year-on-year growth rate of shipments in China's folding screen mobile phone market will be 90%, 150%, 83%, and 105% respectively, maintaining a high growth trend for four consecutive quarters. It is estimated that China's folding screen mobile phone market will ship about 10.68 million units in 2024, and by 2028, China's folding screen mobile phone shipments will exceed 17 million units.

A number of mobile phone manufacturers have laid out new patents such as Honor and Xiaomi

The reporter noticed that in addition to the folding screen mobile phone products that have been released, major mobile phone manufacturers are also actively deploying and reserving folding screen patent technology.

Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office announced an invention patent for the glory of "foldable electronic devices". According to the patent schematic diagram, Honor conceived a cross folding scheme, which combines the existing two folding methods, up and down, left and right, and can divide the phone into 4 screen areas to achieve a variety of folding methods.

In addition, the list published by the State Intellectual Property Office on October 1 shows that Xiaomi has obtained a new invention patent for electronic devices, envisioning a new form of folding mobile phones in the future, which can be disassembled. The patent is described as: "The electronic device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure has the advantages of simple structure, low manufacturing cost, small size, large screen, and easy assembly." "According to the patent drawing, the mobile phone can also disassemble two screen areas in addition to the existing folding base, and in one of the patent drawings, it is also possible to rotate the upper half of the screen.

With the maturity and continuous innovation of technology, folding screen mobile phones are attracting more and more attention from consumers. According to the "2024 China Folding Screen Mobile Phone Market and Consumption Trend Research Report" released by iResearch, the shipment volume of the folding screen mobile phone market will maintain rapid growth from 2022 to 2024, and the current recognition of folding screen mobile phones in the market has reached a high level, and nearly eighty percent of consumers said that they will continue to pay attention to the development trend of folding screens.

Folding screen-related industrial chains such as screens, hinges, and covers have attracted attention

With the soaring popularity of folding screen mobile phones, folding screen supply chain manufacturers such as screens and hinges have also attracted much attention. Recently, Jingyan Technology, United Precision, Hongxin Electronics, Visionox and other folding screen industry chain companies have accepted intensive research from institutions and expressed optimism about the future. Zou Lanlan, chief analyst of electronics at the Great Wall Securities Industrial Finance Research Institute, believes that with the improvement of hardware technology and the optimization of software system applications of terminal manufacturers and upstream supply chains, consumers' experience has been continuously improved, and product prices have continued to decline, which has also enhanced consumers' willingness to consume. Subsequently, driven by new products such as double folding and triple folding, the shipment and penetration rate of folding mobile phones are expected to maintain a rapid growth trend.

According to CINNO Research data, the sales of folding screen mobile phones in China reached 2.62 million units in the second quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 125%. The rapid development of folding screen mobile phones will drive the development of the industrial chain of core components such as flexible OLED, screen cover, and hinge. According to a report released by UBI Research, in the second quarter of 2024, 9.94 million OLED panels for foldable phones were shipped. Foldable phone OLED shipments accounted for 5.2% of all smartphone OLED shipments in the second quarter, the second highest on record.

In addition to the flexible screen, hinge and cover technology is the key to solving the problem of screen creases, and it is also the place where the folding screen terminal can truly withstand the reliability test. When Huawei launched the world's first triple-fold screen mobile phone, the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master, it emphasized the importance of its Tiangong hinge system. According to the research report of Tianfeng Securities, the global folding screen mobile phone hinge market space will reach 3.64 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected that by 2027, the global folding screen mobile phone hinge market space is expected to reach 25.78 billion yuan, and the global folding screen mobile phone hinge market will achieve rapid growth. In terms of cover, at present, UTG in the folding screen mobile phone market has gradually become the mainstream cover material in the folding screen mobile phone market. According to CINNO Research data, in 2022, the number of UTGs installed on the front cover of folding mobile phones in China will be about 1.1 million, and it will continue to grow at a CAGR of 65% to nearly 5 million units in 2025.

Yang Zhong, chief analyst of the electronics industry at Huafu Securities, said that folding screen mobile phones are in the stage of rapid penetration, and the overall penetration rate of folding screen mobile phones is expected to grow rapidly due to the improvement of yield rate and price decline.

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