The foldable market will grow by 50.5% in 2023 from 14.2 million units shipped in 2022 to an expected 21.3 million units this year, the International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts.
This is a combined outlook for both the flip (clamshell) and fold (book style) foldables. And this is just the start, for a longer-term projection, IDC expects foldable shipments to reach 48.1 million units in 2027, representing a compound annual growth rate of 27.6% from 2022 to 2027.
While the overall smartphone market dropped by 11% in 2022, IDC believes that there is still a healthy demand for foldables. The research firm notes that foldables are still very much a high-end product, despite their average selling price being expected to drop by 6.8% by the end of the year.
While the price is falling, durability and build quality are improving as current players release new models of their foldables in addition to new players also joining the space with their own versions. The software side is also getting upgrades to improve the experience of users adopting this new form factor. All these are key factors driving the quick adoption of foldable devices.
“A plethora of new models from current and new vendors hitting the market later this year can only reiterate the recent success and increased demand we are currently witnessing in the market,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team.
Nabila Popal also thinks that by being a different form factor, foldables look more enticing for buyers as they break the monotony of what the smartphone market had become.
“Consumers need new motivation to go out and upgrade to something that can wow them. Foldable devices currently bring that ‘wow factor’ and I believe they will continue to grab more headlines and outperform non-foldable smartphones over the next five years.” explains Nabila Popal
Despite IDC forecasting the shipment of foldable smartphones to increase by more than 50% in 2023, the research firm expects the overall smartphone market to contract by 1.1% for the same period, which spells trouble for manufacturers yet to try their hand in this foldable space.
