Foldable Phone Market Will Hit $29 Billion in 2025, IDC Says

The foldable phone market continues to skyrocket, with more than 7 million flip and fold units sold in 2021 alone. 

That’s an increase of over 260% from the 1.9 million models shipped in 2020, according to a new recount from telecom market intelligence firm International Data Corporation, which projects that about 27.6 million flip phones will be sold in 2025 at a total estimated market value of $29 billion.

By 2025, fold and flip arranged market share could more than triple, according to IDC, representing 1.7% of all mobile phones.

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IDC places the model’s speedily growth squarely at the feet of Samsung, which released the crowd-pleasing Galaxy Z Flip 3 in August and is anticipated to drop the Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 later this year.

Though the Korean tech giant hasn’t released hard sales figures for its foldable phones, it says sales of its foldables quadrupled in 2021.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Samsung

Foldables are unruffled a small part of the market — just 0.5% of the arranged market in 2021, according to IDC — but Samsung is ordering to peel consumers away from Apple and other competitors.

According to information from its trade-in programs and anunexperienced retail data, Samsung has seen a 150% increase in customers who switched from anunexperienced smartphone brands to one of its foldables, compared with those who switched from its Galaxy Note 20, AndroidCentral reported, and a 140% increase compared with those who switched from the Galaxy S21.

Samsung’s unexperienced launches shattered the two biggest roadblocks to the uptake of foldables, said IDC research director Nabila Popal: “rocket-high average selling sign and concerns around durability.”

“With their latest devices, Fold 3 and Flip 3, about the $1,000 price point — and massive improvements in durability — they distinguished the world that there is a healthy, even if unruffled small, demand for foldables,” Popal told CNET.  “In just one quarter, they helped triple the worldwide volume. To me, that is a collapsed launch.”  

The largest chunk of foldables, about 35%, are in the US market, she added. “There were really strong promotions and trade-in supplies with the major operators in the US which really helped.”

Samsung didn’t currently respond to a request for comment.