Since the launch date of Apple’s new smartphone has been officially announced, IDC experts have decided not to postpone their predictions on the impact of this launch on the market, and said that the foldable iPhone will be shipped more than 10 million units in the first year of its launch, which will save the market from declining.
Image source: Apple
according to IDC AnalystA hefty price tag of around $2,500 per unit won’t scare away the “very elite buyers” who have been lining up to buy the device since the first foldable iPhone. At the very least, if Apple had not planned to launch a foldable smartphone this fall, the market for such devices would likely have declined, judging by its performance, but would even have grown by 12.6% this year to 22.9 million units thanks to the company’s actions, and by another 18% to 27 million units next year. IDC representatives believe that Apple will have the opportunity to capture 40% of the foldable smartphone market by the end of 2027, with approximately 17 million units of this type of device shipped during the given period. In the case of Apple, its sales revenue may exceed $45.7 billion, while the average price of a folding iPhone exceeds $2,550. By comparison, foldable smartphones running iOS will be able to capture 31% of the market this year, which is pretty good for a launch period.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t help the smartphone market as a whole, as experts predict a record decline of 16.7%, compared to the previous forecast of 13.9%. As you might have guessed, the culprits will be memory shortages and rising memory prices. “The era of cheap smartphones is over” – As the same components ensure advances in artificial intelligence while remaining in short supply, IDC notes, their growing costs are transferred to goods on store shelves. The average smartphone cost overall will exceed $600 by the end of next year and will continue to fall, but not before rising 27.6% this year to approach that milestone ($581).
Shipments of smartphones running Android, the operating system used by low-cost devices, will fall 24.3% this year. Last year, 173 million sub-$100 smartphones were sold globally, but as an IDC representative pointed out, this year the segment does face an existential threat. In the second quarter of this year, this segment has shrunk by 60% and will shrink further in the future. Judging from the current half-year performance, overall smartphone shipments decreased by 27.2% year-on-year. By the end of this year, the share of smartphones running Android will fall by 7 percentage points, but the iPhone will grow by nearly 4 percentage points, reaching a record 23.6%. Overall, shipments of smartphones running iOS fell only 1.3% this year.
If you find an error, select it with your mouse and press CTRL+ENTER.
