In 2022, the mobile phone market continues to stage a "battle on the top", and the competition between the first echelon manufacturers such as Apple, Glory, and OV has intensified, especially the upgrading of the advanced competition of high-end brands. In the current "post-Huawei era", the domestic market appears in the "vacuum" window period, the pattern is undecided, the high-end arena is brewing changes.
On the evening of March 17, Honor released a new generation of flagship mobile phones - Honor Magic4 series, including Honor Magic4 and Honor Magic4 Pro and Glory Magic4 to the best version of three products, in the screen, image, chip and other core devices fully tuned, and the industry chain joint innovation, the sword refers to the high-end.
In the eyes of many institutions, the high-end market is the key to the current smartphone market to seek new growth. At present, the replacement cycle of mobile phones has been as long as 25-30 months, the demand is shrinking, and the market with serious homogenization is in urgent need of innovation, and under the contrarian trend, the high-end market and the promotion of brand premium will help enterprises have a stronger voice in the industrial chain and obtain higher profits. On the other hand, the high-end championship has become a competition between big players, the head manufacturers are solidified, and the players are seeking differentiation paths.
Smart phone chess to the middle game, how to break the dull micro-innovation, how to break the android "inner volume" ceiling, how to break the high-end barriers? Judging from the choice of big factories, intelligence has become the key to breaking the game. From Apple's A series chips, Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, to Glory's Magic4 smart flagship and OPPO equipped with self-developed NPU, their release is emphasizing AI computing power and intelligent capabilities.
In 2015, AI woke up and began to popularize, and now AI and intelligent hardware are deeply integrated at the bottom layer, becoming a new engine for smartphones to evolve into smart phones. In Honor's view, smart phones are the future development trend, AI intelligent capabilities will provide a differentiated experience for high-end mobile phone competition, and AI technology will open the next "golden decade" of mobile phones.
Behind the smart flagship from 3999 yuan: technology-driven competition for the high-end market
Apple has always been the hegemon of the high-end market, according to GFK data, in the second quarter of 2021, Apple accounted for 54.8% of the market above $500. And domestic mobile phone manufacturers are also aiming at higher price segments to launch an offensive, in 2022, mobile phone manufacturers are gearing up for a second charge.
According to Canalys, the Chinese market will remain the world's largest high-end market in 2022, contributing 30% of the world's product shipments of more than $500. Therefore, whether it can occupy a place in China's high-end market is very critical, in the eyes of industry insiders, in 2022, Apple's dominant situation in China's high-end market will change, and the Android camp may regain part of the market share. In fact, after Huawei's mobile phone faded out, some of the needs of consumers in the high-end market have not been met, and each family is racing against Apple.
Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said: "We want to really change the situation of Apple's dominance in the high-end market. After the release of Apple 13, China's high-end mobile phone market has changed from two poles to one pole, and the rise of domestic high-end flagship machines is urgently needed. ”
The newly released Magic4 series is one of the benchmarks, it is worth noting that in terms of price, honor magic4 3999 yuan, honor magic4 Pro5499 yuan, honor magic4 to the best version of 7999 yuan. As a smart flagship product, the starting price of Honor Magic4 is only set at 3999 yuan, which can be described as "increasing the amount without increasing the price", which is to anchor the market of more than 500 US dollars, reflecting the determination and confidence of Glory to attack the high-end market.
Pricing is closely related to the final sales and profits of mobile phones, and the test is the comprehensive strength of enterprises in terms of technical strength, supply chain, and demand insight. For the glory of passing through the darkest hour, the wisdom flagship from 3999 yuan reflects the multi-dimensional scientific and technological capabilities and supply chain control capabilities behind it.
First of all, the most critical thing is to enhance product strength with scientific and technological power and effectively solve the pain points of the high-end mobile phone market. In the face of the construction of high-end product forces, the head enterprise strategies are different, such as OPPO, vivo, millet are invested at the chip level, and strengthened the high-end product line, Glory has always been the representative of the technical school, since independence, continue to invest in large-scale research and development, tackle core technologies, especially in software optimization and localization experience to build barriers.
For example, in the field of communications, the Honor Magic4 series industry first launched the smart privacy call function, which can effectively prevent sound leakage. It is understood that the technical basis of this function comes from the two-unit intelligent collaborative sound technology pioneered by Honor, and the screen sound and the top earpiece work together to achieve most of the energy in the ear to ensure the privacy of the call.
"Honor has always adhered to the ultimate productism of consumer demand and scientific and technological innovation of two-wheel drive, the breakthrough of high-end mobile phones must have leading technological innovation, and Glory should be the terminator of consumer pain points, rather than repeating at low levels or just the accumulation of hardware configurations." Zhao Ming said.
Secondly, the joint innovation ability of the supply chain is indispensable, in the case of increasing challenges in technological breakthroughs, mobile phone manufacturers have joined hands with suppliers to deepen differentiation in the fields of shooting, screen, appearance and so on. In terms of mainstream chips, operating systems, etc., Glory has established long-term and stable cooperation with global supplier partners, and mutual empowerment with the supply chain.
In addition, Glory's scientific and technological strength in the field of manufacturing is also quite strong, in September 2021, glory intelligent manufacturing industrial park was officially put into production, and is planning to expand production, with self-built factory building means that high-end customization capabilities have been enhanced, and there is sufficient guarantee in production capacity.
In addition, behind the product innovation is inseparable from the gathering of talents, the current glory of R & D personnel accounted for more than half, including a large number of chips, communications and other fields of top experts. At the same time, Honor has 4 major R&D bases and more than 100 innovative experiments around the world, and has the industry's advanced core technologies such as technology, architecture design, communication and connection, providing underlying support for mobile phone innovation.
The next step for super-species: intelligence
At the same time, the game between brands is not limited to product layout, but also lies in the grasp of future trends. Throughout the flagship release of mainstream manufacturers in recent years, mobile phones as a super species, the evolution direction of "intelligence" has become the consensus of the industry, from image algorithms, intelligent photography, AI engines, to smart privacy calls, intelligent interaction, etc., focusing on the function of wisdom is accelerating the landing, becoming a new driving force for evolution.
From the perspective of the industry, on the one hand, with the evolution of artificial intelligence technology, a new round of intelligent revolution is coming, intelligence is going deep into thousands of industries, new technology has also brought new human-computer interaction and experience upgrades, including mobile phones, intelligent terminals will usher in intelligent changes, and a new intelligent ecology is growing.
On the other hand, the current intelligent scene is rapidly expanding, in addition to mobile phones, PCs, wearable devices, cars and other terminals are constantly intelligent, while the trend of intelligent connection between individuals is becoming more and more obvious. The mobile phone is always the first device, at present, it is the terminal of all terminals, even other more agile devices, which also need the assistance of mobile phones. Therefore, the intelligence of other devices and applications provides more scenarios for the intelligence of mobile phones, and correspondingly, mobile phones also empower the ecology of multiple terminals, double-phase superposition, and the ecosystem with mobile phones as the core breeds greater development potential.
The intelligence of multiple terminals and scene interconnection have become the common direction of giants, for example, whether it is Apple's mobile phone chip and PC chip architecture unification, or Huawei's acceleration of the Internet of Things through Hongmeng, it is inseparable from the wisdom ability, and the intelligent ecological competition around the mobile phone is becoming increasingly fierce. For example, the voice assistants on each mobile phone are also constantly upgrading to provide more humanized intelligent services.
In the face of the trend of intelligence, Honor believes that AI technology is a bridge between product software and hardware, improving the overall product experience through architecture optimization and software and hardware collaboration, and playing a major role in cross-screen, cross-device, cross-system, cross-ecology and other dimensions.
Under the blessing of AI, the Magic4 series also brings new experiences, such as at the operating system level, The Glory's AI intelligent operating system Magic UI6.0, through magic Live scene perception, user understanding and knowledge graph and other capabilities, makes the mobile phone functions and services more personalized according to the user's personal usage habits, and realizes the innovation of active service experience, "the more used the better". At the same time, Honor is also doing more investment in the software ecosystem, including the previous in-depth cooperation with Microsoft on the PC side, etc., on the basis of operating systems such as Android, Windows and IoT, Honor wants to form a unique wisdom ecological advantage.
The prevailing view is that the golden age of smartphones has passed, the technology dividend is disappearing, and in fact, the technology dividend is still in the process of rapid accumulation. Although there are still basic technical obstacles, such as voice assistants, intelligent systems, and intelligent hardware, the degree of wisdom is not high enough, but the technology is not a sudden transformation overnight, it needs qualitative change opportunities, and the intelligence of mobile phones will also add grayscale and slowly accumulate and upgrade into a development engine.
The exploration of wisdom has always existed, and Glory will have the opportunity to create landmark products. Judging from the recent conference, Honor is strengthening the intelligent label and continuing to carry out differentiated innovation, with the release of the Honor Magic4 series, Honor has created a new track of flagship mobile phone wisdom. From cutting-edge technology to intelligent ecological integration capabilities, it is the background of Glory's attack on the high-end, and after solving the bottom line needs of survival, Glory is reshaping the core moat for the future.