Foldable smartphone shipments worldwide 2019, 2020 and 2025

Manufacturers shipped a total of one million foldable smartphones in 2019, and forecasts show they are set to ship of eight million units in 2020. Foldable smartphone shipments in 2019 represented a small fraction of the 1.37 billion global smartphone shipments in that year. Entering the market in 2019, analysts expect foldable smartphone shipments to reach 50.1 million units globally by 2022.

Limited options in foldable smartphones

Compared to regular smartphones, there very few foldable options currently available in the smartphone market. Those that are available are selling at a much higher price than regular smartphones. In the United States for example, the few foldable smartphones available for purchase are selling at prices of up to 1,979 U.S. dollars. However, Microsoft, and the Chinese companies Oppo, and Xiaomi, are planning to release foldable smartphones, adding to the current available options from Samsung and Motorola.

5G driving innovation in smartphone market?

Released into the market for sale in 2019, 5G smartphone shipments have increased rapidly, with the total shipments in the first quarter of 2020 surpassing that of the whole of 2019. Samsung is the leading 5G smartphone vendor in the U.S. with over 70 percent of the market and also the leading vendor globally in terms of shipment units. As 5G smartphone popularity continues to increase, consumers expect that 5G smartphones will lead to improved mobile data speeds and mobile service coverage.