Huawei foldable Mate X (Photo/VCG)

Nov. 18 (NBD)-- The multi-delayed and princely Huawei Mate X 5G once again sold out within a minute in its second sale on Monday morning.

Priced at 16,999 yuan (around 2,400 U.S. dollars), the foldable smartphone was first launched last Friday and was quickly snapped up. Predictably, bigger crowds will clog up Vmall, Huawei's own e-commerce platform, in the next sale which is scheduled for November 22 at 10:08 Beijing time.

The undersupplied Mate X has attracted attention from scalpers who expected to rake in big profits. National Business Daily (NBD) noticed that a Mate X model in a Taobao shop was priced at as high as 61,999 yuan (8,839 U.S. dollars), 3.6 times Huawei's official selling price.

Huawei Mate X is the second major foldable phone to hit the market following the Samsung Galaxy Fold. While the former is now only available in Chinese market, Samsung Galaxy Fold, with a lower price tag of 1,980 U.S. dollars, was launched in South Korea, the U.S., and the U.K. in late September. Similarly, Samsung's foldable phone also sold out immediately on its debut selling day.

Foldable phones' sellout in minutes can be attributed to the limited stock.

Although Huawei has not disclosed the exact number of Mate X offered in the previous two sales, research director Yan Zhanmeng at market research firm Counterpoint Research estimated that approximately 100,000 units was put on sale in the first batch.

In the eyes of industry insiders, behind the hot sales also lie the lack of mass production and the fact that the foldable smartphones haven't come into the hands of ordinary customers. 

Counterpoint Research forecasted in a report that the foldable phone shipment will reach around 400,000 units in 2019, much lower than the previous estimate of 1.9 million units. 

Less than 0.1 percent of smartphones will have foldable displays in 2019 and the proportion will grow to more than 3 percent by 2024, according to another research firm Strategy Analytics (SA). "Durability is a main concern for potential foldable display smartphone buyers," said director Ken Hyers at SA, "Vendors must work hard and spend serious marketing money to convince consumers that the devices are durable for everyday usage."

SA in its report Global Display Technologies Forecast: 2008-2024 also pointed out the limited customer base for foldable display smartphones due to the current steep prices, "Only when its prices come down is mass adoption possible."

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn