Floundering foldables market needs Apple to step up

The foldables market is said to be in a spot of bother, and Apple has been tipped to ride to the rescue.

Display analyst Ross Young is well known for his insights into the smartphone supply chain (among other screen-related things), and he’s just written an interesting report on the still-pretty-niche foldables industry.

Referring to the foldables market as ‘niche’ might surprise some, but it still represents a tiny fraction of the overall smartphone market. And as Young points out, the market has pretty much stalled, with demand for foldable panels levelling out.

According to Young’s predictions for DSCC, growth in the foldables market will slow to just 5% this year. Rather alarmingly, it will actually fall 4% in 2025.

Young points to sluggish demand for Samsung’s Flip and Fold phones as a major reason for this. The South Korean giant led the way with foldables early on, but shipments for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 are predicted to be more than 10% below the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Huawei, the second biggest foldables player, has also experienced a slow down in its foldables operation of late.

What we need is a strong third player, says Young. What we need is Apple.

The iPhone maker has been rumoured to be working on a bendy smartphone for some time now, and the latest projections are that the iPhone foldable will finally hit the market in the second half of 2026.

Young reckons that Apple’s arrival could “generate significant growth for the foldable smartphone market”, thanks to its dominant position in the industry. Any improvements that Apple could bring to the form factor, functionality, and durability of such devices could get the ball rolling again.

Indeed, Young predicts that 2026 could be a record year for foldables, with above 30% growth for the year. The following two years could also see 20% growth as the Apple influence takes hold.

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