Huawei’s three-fold screen mobile phone opens the reservation, driving the development of the industrial chain
Our reporter, Jali
On September 7, Huawei’s three-fold mobile phone Mate XT Extraordinary Master has opened online and offline reservations. At the same time, the appearance details of the three-fold mobile phone have also been officially revealed, and some stores have even displayed prototypes. Although the price has not been announced, this does not seem to affect consumer enthusiasm. As of press time, Huawei Mall shows that the number of reservations for the product has exceeded 2.30 million.
"The popularity of reservations has exceeded expectations. The production side is already urgently scheduling production, and orders may be added later," said a person close to Huawei.
Usher in "booking fever"
It is reported that the new tri-fold mobile phone will be officially launched at Huawei’s press conference on September 10, the price will also be announced, and it will be officially launched on September 20.
The reporter learned that Huawei’s triple-folding mobile phone is currently in the pre-sale stage, with only a few prototypes in some stores, and the Beijing store has not yet fully distributed the goods. Since the price and other details have not been announced, consumers can only make "blind orders".
A person in charge of a Huawei authorized experience store told reporters that the three-fold mobile phone has just been launched, and the supply is very small. After the official sale, only some large stores will have a small amount in stock. Even if consumers book successfully, the specific arrival time cannot be determined.
However, even so, this time Huawei still ushered in "booking fever". There are queues in Huawei’s offline flagship stores in many places across the country. According to a Huawei supplier, as of now, the number of people booking all channels of Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master has exceeded 3 million.
The listing of Huawei’s triple-folding mobile phone has undoubtedly added another "fire" to the rapidly growing folding screen mobile phone market. According to IDC data, China’s folding screen mobile phone shipments reached 2.57 million units in the second quarter of 2024, an increase of 104.6% year-on-year. Among them, Huawei ranked first with a market share of 41.7%.
Hong Yong, a think tank expert at the China Digital Real Integration 50 Forum, forecasts that the emergence of tri-fold mobile phones heralds further innovation in the form of mobile devices, or drives the upgrading of the industrial chain, and will also intensify competition in the high-end smartphone market.
"From two-fold screen mobile phones to three-fold screen mobile phones means that our country has made another breakthrough in folding screen technology and industrialization, and manufacturers have made substantial progress in key areas such as flexible screens, hinges, glass materials, and software adaptation," said Song Jia, deputy secretary-general of the China United Nations Procurement Promotion Association.
Many class A share companies participate in research and development
In addition to Huawei, many mobile phone manufacturers are also interested in seizing market opportunities. For example, Transsion Holdings has released the first three-fold screen concept machine overseas, and Honor’s three-fold screen mobile phone has also been exposed recently.
"Although the two-fold screen is relatively mature, the early sales of the three-fold mobile phone will be smaller due to the high technical difficulty and the scarcity of parts and materials. At the same time, the large-scale production of the three-fold mobile phone requires the end point manufacturer and the supply chain to have strong innovation synergy ability, and the threshold is high, so there will not be many entrants in the short term. As the industry chain gradually matures, the subsequent cost will be further reduced," said Ma Jihua, founder of Darui Consulting.
In order to promote the mass production of three-fold screens, many domestic listed companies in the fields of OLED panels, hinges, materials, etc. are jointly developing with mobile phone end point brands.
In the field of flexible displays, listed companies such as BOE A, Visionox, and Shentianma A have all developed flexible three-fold screen or "N" folding display prototypes. Among them, BOE is also exploring the development of sliding screen technology. Shentianma A revealed that the company has a number of technical reserves in folding mobile phones, of which the three-fold solution has pre-research project cooperation with brand customers.
Oriental Fortune Securities Research Report believes that with the future of folding screen end point penetration rate and market size improvement, screen, hinge and other related parts suppliers are expected to open up new growth space.