The Venn diagram of Samsung’s foldable smartphone sales and global foldable smartphone sales is amazingly close to merging into a single circle. Over the final quarter of 2020, the company’s flexible-display flagships accounted for approximately 91% of all sales in the segment. That’s all according to the latest report from DSCC, an industry watcher that’s been bullish on Samsung’s foldable smartphone prospects for quite some time.
With its leadership in foldable phones reaching ridiculously undisputable levels (or perhaps because of that), Samsung is now regrouping, in a sense. Namely, the Korean giant recently decided to delay all of its 2021 foldable smartphone releases until the third quarter of the year, as per the same source. This would be a couple of months later than initially rumored.
Can Samsung break the 1,000% growth ceiling this year?
We’ve already heard quite a bit about Samsung’s foldable smartphone plans for 2021. For example, today’s report dovetails with recent rumors about a cheaper Galaxy Z Flip 3 being on the cards this year. Mobile devices with bendable screens are still somewhat away from mainstream popularity, which is why South Korea is almost certain to remain the single largest market for this type of tech, sales-wise.
Given the logistical nightmare that 2020 left at the doorstep of every electronics supply chain on the planet, it’s no wonder Samsung isn’t rushing things. Given its strong position, it would be unreasonable to expect it to risk another premature release akin to the Galaxy Fold fiasco.
Looking at the DSCC’s projections, the biggest feasible downside to this roadmap pushback is that Samsung might not hit the magical 1,000% growth rate in Q4 2021 foldable shipments. 950% will just have to do. In all seriousness, even if its segment dominance wasn’t so pronounced, this is still a relatively small market we’re looking at, projected to only hit five million annual shipments in total this year.
