Zhao Ming, CEO of Glory: Apple is the only one in the high-end market, and there is an urgent need for the rise of domestic flagship mobile phones

Per reporter: Wang Jing Per editor: Zhang Haini

Honor CEO Zhao Ming. Image source: Daily Economic News (infographic)

"China's mobile phone market is expected to decline to a certain extent in 2022, and the specific impact depends on the epidemic and some other factors. At present, the replacement cycle of smart phones has reached 25 months to 30 months. Honor CEO Zhao Ming said in an interview with the Daily Economic News reporter after the flagship mobile phone launch recently. In such a market environment, mobile phone manufacturers should give consumers the right reason - why change mobile phones? ”

The impact of the epidemic and Apple's squeeze will be the two major challenges faced by domestic mobile phone companies in 2022, which will test the market trading ability of enterprises. Judging from the recent product releases of domestic mobile phone companies, the competitive situation of the flagship mobile phones that frequently appear in terms of configuration and price is also becoming increasingly fierce.

Glory, which is in a period of rebound, is expanding at a high speed. Zhao Ming said that Honor's global sales target this year is to double, especially in overseas markets. Commenting on the high-end market pattern of smart phones, he said: "After the release of the iPhone 13, China's high-end mobile phone market has changed from 'two poles' (Huawei and Apple) to 'one pole' (Apple), and there is an urgent need for the rise of domestic high-end flagship machines. ”

Shift from hardware stacking "inner rolls" to experience battles

In recent years, the smartphone industry has gradually touched the "ceiling" and fallen into a situation of weak growth, but multi-party data statistics show that the demand for the high-end machine market is not fully met. Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam recently analyzed the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the ASP (average market unit price) in the Chinese market has increased from the past 1500 yuan to 2000 yuan to 2700 yuan ~ 3000 yuan price segment.

However, after the decline in Huawei's mobile phone market share, other domestic manufacturers failed to take on its high-end share, resulting in Apple being in a "single dominant" situation in the domestic high-end mobile phone market. With the hot sales of the iPhone 13, as of January this year, Apple has won the single-machine sales champion in the Chinese market for four consecutive months. The release of the third-generation iPhone SE series this month may continue to consolidate this advantage.

However, the weakness of market share does not mean that there is a loss of charm and a weakness in innovation. At present, several domestic brands have entered the high-end machine market, such as the launch of folding screen mobile phones, self-developed chips, increasing fast charging power, improving screen refresh rate, etc., and launching round after round of performance and configuration upgrade competitions.

From the evolution process of domestic mobile phone products, it can be seen that enterprises no longer stay in the stacking of hardware, but pay attention to the experience of software and hardware collaboration, and invest a lot in algorithm capabilities and consumer experience. In fact, AI intelligence capabilities are becoming a new track for high-end mobile phone competition. For example, in terms of imaging, Huawei continues to invest in "computational optics" technology to form a new path for imaging system innovation through high-quality hardware and algorithms; honor's AI imaging technology engine for the recently released Magic4 series mobile phones has overcome the problem of photography without light.

At the same time, in terms of display, the Honor Magic4 series debuted LTPO screen + 1920Hz PWM high-frequency dimming technology (the highest dimming specification); in terms of security, honor Magic4 Pro supported the privacy call function for the first time, solving the common problem of call sound leakage in smartphones.

"We often comment that the development of smart phones began to roll inward, the so-called inner volume is in the low-level repetition, or only micro-innovation, consumer demand upgrade at the same time, the competitive dimension of the mobile phone market is also changing." In the past, the era of focusing on marketing and simply competing for performance data has passed, and the breakthrough of high-end mobile phones must have leading technological innovation, and must continue to solve the pain points of consumers' daily use of smart phones. Zhao Ming said.

Ivan Lam believes that in the face of fierce competition, Apple is unlikely to maintain last year's development momentum in the Chinese market this year. "Domestic head manufacturers have made a lot of adjustments for Chinese consumers, and are expected to get more shares in the market above $500."

Adjust the market competition strategy

After overcoming the problem of survival, Honor's next stage goal is to "continue to benchmark Apples and double global sales with the restart of overseas markets."

To this end, Honor has made adjustments to its market competition strategy. First of all, in terms of pricing strategy, the Honor Magic4 series is higher than the previous generation of configuration but the pricing is lower - starting from 3999 yuan, further robbing users. "We saw that Apple carried out the so-called 'dimensionality reduction attack' in the Chinese market, and the management and trading team of Honor repeatedly discussed during this time, we not only have to compare with Apple in terms of experience, performance, photography and many other aspects, but also want everyone to feel the determination and effort of Honor to win the support of high-end users in terms of price, so that everyone has no obstacles in choosing the Glory Magic4 series." Zhao Ming said.

Second, accelerate the pace of product release and broaden product categories. Zhao Ming said that Honor will fully restart the global market this year. "Whether it is Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and other regions, our team is ready to go. Since March this year, there will be a number of products released worldwide, and for 3 to 4 months, we will release one product almost every month. ”

After entering 2022, Honor also resumed the release rhythm of all products, in addition to the iteration of mobile phones, all-scenario products, including laptops, TWS headphones, and tablets will also be launched. Zhao Ming believes that the smartphone industry, as well as the full-scenario industry with smart phones as the core, has great potential for development. In the future, we will also work with auto companies to create a more all-scenario experience of mobility or service mobility. But Zhao Ming stressed that "glory will not build cars."

However, "how to build a hardware design experience beyond Apple and its operating system is a problem that Honor has focused on and focused on for a while." Zhao Ming told reporters.

Speaking of the relationship with Huawei, Zhao Ming said: "Since the day we became independent from Huawei, the technical connection between us and Huawei has completely disappeared, and the current technology has been developed by our own research and development team. At the same time, he said that in order to further shape its influence in the high-end market, Honor does not rule out the possibility of entering the chip SoC development in the future." But for a long time, Honor will also cooperate with Qualcomm and MediaTek. ”

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