TrendForce: iPhone Duo Projected to Take 24.8% of Foldable Market in 2026
TrendForce forecasts Apple's iPhone Duo will ship 5 million units and capture 24.8% of the foldable phone market by the end of 2026, as global foldable shipments rise just 0.5% and Android brands decline more than 20%.
The forecast credits a single model with lifting a segment that TrendForce otherwise describes as stalling. The firm projects global foldable smartphone shipments of roughly 20.2 million units in 2026, up only 0.5 percent from a year earlier. Excluding Apple, combined shipments from Android brands are expected to reach about 15.2 million units, a decline of more than 20 percent year over year. TrendForce attributed that slowdown to sharp increases in component costs.
Samsung is still expected to lead the category, with 7.1 million units shipped for the year and a 35.1 percent market share, the report says. Huawei is forecast to match Apple's 5 million units and 24.8 percent share.
TrendForce also examined the hardware decisions behind the iPhone Duo's final design. Apple omitted a dedicated periscope telephoto camera to minimize thickness and conserve internal space, and the 48-megapixel main camera instead provides 2x optical-quality zoom. A side-mounted Touch ID sensor replaces Face ID. The firm described the choices as evidence of the trade-offs foldable makers continue to face among device thickness, camera capabilities, biometric components and battery space.
Looking beyond the current generation, TrendForce suggested that deeper integration of AI and multitasking interfaces with the larger foldable display could transform such devices from a hardware differentiator into a new interface for AI applications.
The shipment and market-share figures come from TrendForce's report as reported by 9to5Mac. The report follows Apple's announcement of the iPhone Duo the previous day.