Written | Wang Pan
On the evening of January 10, 2022, Honor CEO Zhao Ming raised the Magic V just released in his hand and threw it to the ground twice to prove the quality of this folding screen phone, which was more than two years since his last press conference "fell".
It is not that Zhao Ming does not want to fall, but the uncertainty of Glory following Huawei has spent the past two years in the wind and rain, especially the first new machine V40 after independence has performed flat, which has made it suffer a lot of doubts, and many times it is faced with the situation of "inorganic falling".
At the end of 2020, Honor spun off from Huawei, and the monthly shipments fell from six or seven million units to hundreds of thousands, and the market share was only about 3% at the lowest.
Due to the loss of Huawei's support, the research and development resources of the entire Honor in 2021 are extremely tight.
Zhao Ming told Photon Planet that the entire Huawei system, nearly 100,000 people in the R & D team, with the ability of all aspects. You may inadvertently use a technology and capability of the original company and group, but when you come out, these things need to be completed by these 4,000 people.
However, without help, Glory also broke free of the "shackles", and in the past year, Glory opened the "rush march" mode, and quickly returned to the table through intensive new product releases, rebuilding supply chain relationships, and dredging channels. At the same time, due to the independent relationship, it is no longer considering whether there is a situation of left-right mutual knowledge with Huawei, and Glory is also trying to sprint to the high-end.
The Honor Digital Series has been two generations in a row, and the high-end product line Honor Magic 3, priced at 4599-6799 yuan, was also released last year.
After the Magic series achieved the second generation, there was actually a three-year break in the middle, the main reason was that it conflicted with the positioning of Huawei's Mate and P series at that time. The Magic 3 released after independence is very similar to the Mate40 in appearance, using the same waterfall screen of the Mate 40 Pro on the front, the ring design in the middle of the back, as well as the workmanship, texture and so on.
If anyone has the most advantage to take away the high-end market share after Huawei's withdrawal, then Glory must be on the list.
Although the sales of this model are not as good as the digital series, some insiders told Photon Planet that whether Glory intentionally or unintentionally, Magic 3 is beneficial to the road to high-end. In terms of user acceptance, New Honor is in the same vein as Huawei, which is conducive to improving perception, and also reduces the trial and error cost of Honor's high-end layout.
The data shows that the glory market share began to gradually pick up since the second quarter, reaching 9%, rising to 18% in the third quarter to surpass Xiaomi.
The rising share of glory also gives the channel a certain confidence, a city of glory dealers have revealed to the photon planet, although there are still losses every month, but they think it is worth investing, and believe that glory will make a lot of things to change this market pattern in the future.
And what the channels are waiting for is the glory of high-end products.
Recently, Honor released the Magic V priced at 9999 yuan, officially entered the folding screen mobile phone track, and even ran in front of vivo. From sub-brands to mid-to-high-end brands, what changes have taken Honor from top to bottom in the past year? Where does the future go?
The following is part of Zhao Ming's dialogue with the photon planet and so on
Question: What is the biggest difficulty in doing intelligence? Is it hash rate? Or an insight into the scene? Or somewhere?
Zhao Ming: The development of intelligent type with its low power consumption, core real-time response, the recommendation we need in the future. Why to some extent is also a value, to put it pure advertising, it is certainly unacceptable for consumers, but how to combine consumer needs with the demands of the back-end service Internet platform organically and better, for consumers is welcome.
For example, at noon to eat time, I recommend you the Meituan or Hungry Mo corresponding service, can make you the most convenient, remind you that this is what you can choose, for you, may often be accustomed to using the Hungry Mo platform, using the Meituan platform is good, so that at the beginning may only give you a suggestion, but when I understand and familiarize yourself with your habits, I may recommend Hungry to you, or will not recommend the Meituan to you. This is all based on this truth.
To some extent, why do I say that this is a question involving the company's values, which involves what kind of logic you use, technology is not inclined, but engineers have, enterprises have, which also determines that the intelligent experience of each manufacturer and platform is different from what AI does.
Question: After the release of Magic V, in fact, the glory of the product belt is wider, in your opinion it is not one of the benefits of honor from Huawei independence, the product line is good for independent companies, the scale of strategy, the decision-making chain is definitely very different, I want to hear you talk about this aspect of the feeling. For example, the strategy of moving to the high end has not been discussed at the level of the board of directors and the shareholders' meeting?
Zhao Ming: In fact, what to do in product planning, this is not the scope of the board of directors' decision-making, this is the product operation team is doing, the board of directors more decision-making is the company's capital level, investment level problems, there are corporate governance, compliance issues, the product's business strategy and business strategy are independent research layer, in fact, I think this is a very natural and normal.
Because all the decisions we make are still determined by the strategic positioning, at that time, before the glory did not come out independently, our strategy was on the dual platform of Huawei and glory, which was the strategy of the year, after the independence, our strategic positioning was completely different, in the new strategic positioning, we went to win the competition, but also the strategic demand. You can choose the same strategy as the original glory, you can choose to benchmark Apple, or you can go beyond.
In fact, Honor's strategy today is also different from Apple, Apple's development for so many years, it has come out of its own unique value and strategy, in the strategy suitable for Glory to re-clarify down, the next step is actually to implement, in this new strategy, affirm magic V folding screen flagship mobile phone is what we need.
Question: The overall market share of Honor at the end of 2021 has doubled compared to before, this speed is still unexpected in your opinion, within your expectations, we stand at the beginning of 2022, what do you expect short-term Glory to target this year, is there any quantifiable number?
Zhao Ming: From the perspective of the market development of Glory this year, it is certain that the share will increase, how much the share will grow, I do not make predictions, in September I said that the future glory may no longer publicize and pay attention to market share, and I will never mention it again at the press conference after that.
Objectively speaking, this year, the market share will grow, but how much to grow, for us, there is no special expectation, more than ten, twenty are not easy to say, I personally look at how the Magic flagship machine sells, consumer reputation is not recognized, so I saw that I used a lot of space in yesterday's conference to talk about Magic 3, in the upgrade to Magic After UI6.0, the experience is still constantly improving, and we must let the old users who bought our mobile phones feel the rapid development and progress of the whole glory. Therefore, it is necessary to make the reputation of old users good, not to leave it alone after selling.
In this way, how the company practices the brand is the optimization of the externalization of values, frankly speaking, our old users and the development of new products are also developing, there will definitely be conflicts in resources, but we try to balance this conflict as much as possible. Honor has done a lot of things, are breaking the original a lot of systems or the original comfort zone, for example, the development of Magic UI and the original software system is still based on EMUI this field, now you will find that the walk is completely different.
The second is our flagship machine more than 4,000 yuan, more than 5,000 yuan, more than 6,000 yuan, originally we have less user accumulation in this place, and the new growth also takes time for glory, because it takes basic users to use, and then recognize you, and learn more and more about the next generation. Two or three years without iteration, the popularity of the early Glory Magic series was very low at the beginning of (2021).
Question: Glory has been doing this for several years, or even ten years, in the past year. This process requires a particularly fast decision-making, so what does this fast bring to you?
Zhao Ming: At this time, not all things are attributed to me alone, it should be said that our core team is more radical than me in this way, for example, the president of our product line is a fanatic who makes products, very hot, and has a lot of ideas for making products.
I think it's a balance and a combination of our teams that allow us to better make the right decisions. Because in the product field, I think the work and thinking of our product line president is a good complement to me, that sometimes in the field of marketing other people have some specialization, I may be more from the company's overall strategy and values, brand to build a long-term perspective, reduce some short-term behavior, more from the company's future long-term development, the whole balance of short-term and long-term relationship.
Because there is no short-term you can not live, can not live in the dream, the ideal and reality to combine, these aspects we will do a little more. Of course, I will also do more in the systematic construction of the company, in terms of strategy, this is what I have to think about, and I will be unswerving when I encounter everyone wavering. For example, in the strategy of high-end rise, everyone feels that so much research and development resources are invested every year, and we say that making a folding screen is definitely the investment we make for the entire Magic 3 series, which is this magnitude.
Magic 3 and Magic 4 sales are certainly not a grade, but you have to say that Magic V can make money, how much profit will bring us, this is impossible in the short term. But you're making a huge breakthrough in the rise of the high-end and leading consumers and your product innovation, and once you break through it, when you look at other things in turn, you will feel that this is still very logical. Relatively speaking, after passing this hurdle, you will feel very relaxed when you do other things, and the development of the whole company must continue to break through your bottlenecks and ceilings. When everyone is questioning you, you have to hold on, don't doubt my voice because I'm the CEO, it's normal, because your decisions affect the development of the whole company or every brother, then you have to hold on to these things.
We purchase the supply chain, at the beginning of the most difficult time, is really a chip to grab down, our research and development of this magic live layout, both bottom line thinking, but also have a long-term concept that affects the future, the company in the short term to live healthily, steadily survive, the responsibility to bear, including the responsibility for shareholders, the responsibility of employees. You can't shout slogans to employees, the ideal is great, the reality is very bone, and the employees are not good, it is some thinking in these aspects.
Question: Last year, the tension of the entire chip supply layer was not only the industry, Glory also mentioned it before, you mentioned it before, is it that in 2022, there will be such an old injury to the industry that will continue to spread in this year, is there some new optimization?
Zhao Ming: The problem of chips will definitely be alleviated in 2022 compared with 2021, because there is another reason and feature in 2021, Huawei and Glory suddenly left the market for a while, and everyone will grab this market, so everyone is over booking. We were happy at the time, responsible for the chip of each family are satisfied, far more than the capacity of the market, at that time said not to worry about this problem, few are starving to death, unless the special circumstances are supported to death. In fact, for us, this sentence is also applicable, glory actually needs to pay special attention to the excessive optimism of the market.
Question: Which aspect do you think there is still a gap that needs to be strengthened, this year or in these two or three years.
Zhao Ming: Objectively speaking, many aspects may not be enough, to say that there is no big decision-making, but to say that the resoluteness of implementation in a certain place, standing in the situation at that time, is it possible to do more decisively, more resolutely. Because the trade-offs done every day are relatively much, the people added after the glory system comes out are not so thick, so many of the time we have to do something beyond our own ability at that time, and then to challenge, so the whole team in the past year, but also very hard, especially the R & D team, both to do technical reserves and to do product delivery, there is a stock of user satisfaction to maintain, to improve, so in this process, let me feel very entangled and unbearable, The research and development of this string and the whole team of this string is particularly tight, if you do not use such a way to quickly advance forward, the unconventional way to go forward, your rhythm is not adjusted, always running behind the rhythm, is always in a state of catching up, this is what we need to make up our minds, should bite the teeth to carry it.
It turned out that if it were not for the 211-day rush of R&D, there would be no Honor 50 and Snapdragon 778G, and we would not have bitten our back teeth to carry this thing down. At the press conference, I still remember that before March, the entire company tackled the key 90 days, to let the Honor 50 go public as scheduled, and to gather the strength of the company to do this, the various systems, this turned the rhythm of our supply around.
Question: Now that every folding screen has also been released, at the hardware level, will the next direction of innovation be more in the software and ecology? For this mobile phone industry.
Zhao Ming: I have always believed that software is equally important as hardware, but hardware is still a core carrier, and only hardware patchwork is just a bunch of garbage. Now buy the device, you buy I can not buy the situation is almost no more, but why are all a chip, are aluminum and glass, why the manufacturers are different, so I said the hardware system and capabilities.
For example, in the communication, system, battery technology, as well as the performance of the entire chip and communication, in the comprehensive experience of taking pictures, this core is hardware, these single points or breakthroughs in a certain field and direction of technology, is the cornerstone of the entire mobile phone industry.
Above this, our software system is to fuse these isolated systems together, and this chemical reaction occurs, which is the ability of the software. The sooner you do these thoughts and constructions, the better for your long-term future development, because you are now tearing down the original system and redoing it, and no one can stand it. This is only in the early stage of planning, the architectural things in advance can be developed in the future for a long time, the earlier you do these things, the greater the benefits.
Question: In 2022 or the future, in the whole matrix including strategic play, you reveal to us some entire business lines, such as Honor Pro-Selection, there are many layouts on the entire IoT device, how many points or how is this trade-off, division, is there a matrix?
Zhao Ming: We still focus on the core categories, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, audio, wearables, routing, and smart screens.
However, we may be 1+N or whatever, and we will expand. Our expansion will hold on to a big logic and principle around communication and connectivity, which is one.
Second, in the consumer's personal application or home application experience, it can produce synergy. In fact, the most troublesome thing we had at that time was to do the smart screen, because the smart screen was the person I specifically promoted in the Huawei system when I returned from overseas in 2015.
Question: Are there any keywords or key paces this year?
Zhao Ming: Because this value must be played, we still have to put a lot of practical things, it turns out that I think 2021 will do very rough places, including the level of our own trading capabilities, our retail system and consumer service capabilities, all in 2022 have a substantial improvement.
Because an organization is expanding too fast, in turn, we will also consolidate our capabilities in 2022. From the 8,000 people who came out last year to the current team of 11,000 people, there are still those who have left in the middle, and 4,000 people have been added. We will continue to recruit normally this year, and our staff will expand. The entire system of cultural values and combat effectiveness actually exists in all aspects. How to maintain, or in the original combat effectiveness, it is necessary to further enhance. Why should we take "simple and efficient" as a company's value, we must always remind ourselves not to let the system and organization become bureaucratic after the system and organization are huge. We have two internal layers, one person does the technical, such as doing the review, after agreeing, the second layer of this matter can be concluded.