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 report from telecom market intelligence firm International Data Corporation, which projects that around 27.6 million flip phones will be sold in 2025 at a total estimated market value of $29 billion.

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

Read more: Top foldable phones for 2022: Motorola Razr 2020, Galaxy Flip, Galaxy Fold 2 and more

IDC places the model’s rapid growth squarely at the feet of Samsung, which released the crowd-pleasing Galaxy Z Flip 3 in August and is expected 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 pones, it claims sales of its foldables quadrupled in 2021.

Foldables are still a small part of the market — making up just 0.5% of the phone market in 2021, according to IDC — but Samsung is managing to peel consumers away from Apple and other competitors. According to information from its trade-in programs and other retail data, Samsung has seen a 150% increase in customers who switched from other smartphone brands compared to its Galaxy Note 20, AndroidCentral reported, and a 140% increase compared to the Galaxy S21.

“The recent success of the foldable devices from Samsung has given new life to the category as competitors rush to enter the market,” Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said in a statement.

“Samsung has proven that there is consumer demand for foldable phones once they hit the right price and feature a more stable build.”

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