Apple's launch of its first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, is rapidly expanding the market for materials and components used in foldable devices, including bendable displays, ultra-thin parts and high-density circuit boards. Japanese suppliers that spent years building expertise in making products lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller are not the only beneficiaries. Korean companies with strengths in displays, cameras and memory chips have also moved into the winner's circle.
Japan's Nikkei reported on the 11th that Apple's entry into the foldable smartphone market has opened business opportunities for related components and materials, adding that companies are accelerating development and expanding production as demand for high-quality parts grows.
A foldable phone consists of two thin bodies joined by a hinge, with a bendable display mounted across them. There is less internal space for components than in a conventional smartphone, and some parts, including the screen, circuit boards and adhesives, must withstand hundreds of thousands of folding cycles. That places a greater premium on making components smaller and thinner while keeping them durable.
In Japan, handset makers including NEC advanced thin, compact device technology in the early 2000s as they competed in so-called garake, the country's distinctive feature phones. Electronic component makers built up expertise in high-density mounting and flexible printed circuit boards, or FPCBs. Those technologies drew less attention after the arrival of smartphones, but they are coming back into focus as foldable phones spread.
Nitto Denko has moved to expand production of optically clear adhesive sheets, or OCA, for foldable smartphones. The company plans to invest 39 billion yen in a new plant at its site in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, with operations set to begin in fiscal 2028. OCA bonds organic light-emitting diode panels to cover glass and other layers. In foldable phones, it must retain adhesion and transparency through repeated opening and closing, a technical hurdle that keeps barriers to entry high.
Nippon Electric Glass is also targeting the market for ultra-thin glass that is thinner than a human hair yet can be folded repeatedly. Corning of the United States and Schott of Germany lead that market, but Nippon Electric Glass is cultivating demand from Chinese smartphone makers and others with products offering improved durability.
JX Metals expects rising demand for copper foil used in flexible printed circuits, including around hinges. Foldable phones have more bending points than conventional smartphones, increasing the surface area that requires thin foil capable of withstanding repeated flexing. JSR is developing materials with greater bending durability, such as insulating films for touch panels. TDK is mass-producing next-generation batteries with higher energy density, aimed at foldable phones that consume more power because of their large screens and multitasking.
Korean companies also loom large. Apple sources the foldable OLED panel at the heart of the iPhone Duo from Samsung Display. Reuters reported that Apple is drawing on the foldable supply chain that Samsung Electronics has built and that Samsung Display supplies the bendable screen. Industry officials in Korea believe Samsung Display is effectively the sole supplier of the foldable OLED panels for the iPhone Duo.
Samsung Display already holds a commanding share of the global foldable OLED market. According to research firm Omdia, its revenue-based share exceeds 60% this year, and some analysts expect it to climb to the 80% range in the third quarter as shipments to Apple pick up.
LG Innotek is also seen as a leading beneficiary. The industry believes LG Innotek supplies camera modules and radio frequency system-in-package, or RF-SiP, boards for new iPhone models, including the iPhone Duo. Citi Research estimates LG Innotek will handle 55% to 60% of camera volumes for the new iPhone lineup, including the foldable model.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics is cited as a supplier of semiconductor substrates for the application processor and multilayer ceramic capacitors, or MLCCs, which deliver a stable current, for Apple's foldable phone. Because foldable phones must pack more components into limited internal space, compact, high-performance MLCCs and substrates take on added importance.
In memory, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix stand to benefit. Both are part of the supply chain for the mobile DRAM and NAND flash memory going into the iPhone Duo.
Specialist suppliers of foldable materials and components are also expected to gain. Fine M-Tec holds technology for the metal plates used inside foldable OLED panels and for external hinges. Whether Fine M-Tec supplies parts directly for the iPhone Duo has not been publicly confirmed.
PI Advanced Materials is another company drawing attention in the foldable supply chain. Its polyimide film is used in flexible printed circuit boards and flexible OLED substrates. Revenue from its FPCB products rose 16.2% from a year earlier in the second quarter, helped by demand for high-value products such as ultra-thin films. Whether it supplies parts directly for the iPhone Duo has not been confirmed.
Analysts expect the arrival of the iPhone Duo to shift competition beyond finished smartphones to a contest for leadership in the ultra-thin and miniaturization technologies that Korean and Japanese materials and component makers have accumulated. The race to build lighter, thinner and smaller devices, once driven by Japanese handsets, is reviving after roughly two decades in the form of foldable phones, with Korea leaning on OLED panels, cameras and memory chips and Japan on adhesives, glass, copper foil and battery materials as both seek to benefit from the expanding market.
Separately, Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research expects Apple to ship as many as 6 million iPhone Duo units this year. On that basis, it projects Apple will take about 25% of the global foldable phone market this year, ranking second behind Samsung Electronics at 38% and overtaking Huawei at 22%.
