Foldable smartphone revenue will cross Rs 6,300 crore in India by the end of 2023, according to market analyst firm Techarc.
The reason for the higher sales can be attributed to the fact that smartphone makers in the segment are able to put across a value proposition for the foldable handsets.
Further, the growing trend of affordability for foldable smartphone segment will also drive growth, analysts said.
In 2023, the foldable smartphones are expected to contribute over 1.8% of the total smartphone revenues and the same will be achieved by selling over 635,000 such smartphones during the year, Techarc said.
In 2022, around 0.5 million units of foldable smartphones were sold in India and in the current year the same is expected to increase marginally to about 0.8 million, analysts said.
The estimates about the growth of the segment is significant as people are preferring premium handsets and owing to financing schemes by smartphone makers, the affordability factor has been addressed by the smartphone makers.
In the foldable segment, the market is divided into two variants-H-fold (flip smartphones) and V-Fold (book fold smartphones). Techarc estimates that 64% of the sales during 2023 will be from flip smartphones.
Currently, foldable smartphones such as Motorola Razr 40 Ultra, Motorola Razr 40, Oppo Find N2 Flip, Tecno Phantom V Fold, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, are among the current options available in the market.
Samsung is also expected to soon launch its refreshed version of fold and flip smartphones.
The analyst firm also did a survey of 650 high-end smartphone users who currently have phones worth over Rs 50,000. “We found ease of content consumption as the top reason for them to consider this niche form factor for purchase. Among the inhibitors, durability remains the top concern that makes them doubtful about purchasing one,” Techarc said.
In order to grow the market share of foldable phones, the companies will have to look at exclusive content strategies to attract the foldable smartphone buyers and the same can be done by offering bundled content subscription, Techarc said.
