Text | Creator Wang Han
【01】
"There are no umbrella people, no more people in business judgment to help us make decisions, and the whole management team must grow."
In 2020, the United States sanctions against Huawei continued to escalate, and in desperation, Huawei had to sell Glory to make the latter break through the chip ban and get a chance to survive.
Once only need to guard the glory of the low-end position under the shade of giants, suddenly faced with an unprecedented situation, it is no wonder that President Zhao Ming is so eager to "grow".
Although the glory after leaving Huawei, the lack of core problems was solved. However, the cooperation with Qualcomm also needs to run in, replace the Kirin chip with a Snapdragon chip, and need Honor to design a software platform that can perfectly carry Qualcomm's latest chip on the new model.
In addition, the complete cutting with Huawei, the construction and expansion of the team, the recovery of the new product system and supply chain, the preparation of the channel system... Everything was urgent.
How to integrate loose resources, let glory live, and live up to Huawei's painstaking efforts has become the first problem that Zhao Ming wants to solve.
In those days, Zhao Ming and the employees rushed into the newly renovated office, for ventilation, the windows were open, the cold wind poured in, and everyone worked wrapped in blankets.
Although the chip information was obtained 45 days later than the industry, honor still released the Honor 50 series equipped with Snapdragon 778G 30 days earlier than the industry.
It is also with a lot of energy, although Huawei's mobile phone market share continues to be eaten by various manufacturers, but its "one leaf light boat" glory sent in the midst of the predicament, staged a bottoming out of the big drama.
In the first half of 2021, Glory's market share in China was as low as 3%. With the release of the Honor 50 series, by the end of July, honor's weekly market share had rebounded to 14.6%.
To live is to survive, but to live is not enough.
"We never feel that the original market is back in our hands as it should be, and every day at midnight, our eyes are open, and it is a new market." At this time, Zhao Ming was already working to make Glory out of his comfort zone.
In August 2021, Honor released the Magic3 series, with a release price of 4599 yuan, marking honor's official impact on the high-end market.
According to data from the research agency Counterpoin, a month after the release of the series, the glory market share approached the previous historical high, and in the fourth quarter of 2021, it became the second domestic smartphone with a share of 17%, second only to Apple with 21%.
Recently, the Glory Spring flagship mobile phone Magic4 series has also officially met with consumers.
Zhao Ming revealed that about 60% of the first users of Honor Magic4 came from Apple and Huawei, which also confirmed from the side that the high-end route that Honor is taking has been recognized by many consumers.
【02】
Zhao Ming came to Huawei as soon as he graduated, and his judgment of the high-end market also bears a distinct Huawei imprint - that is, to return to the bottom of innovation steadily, continuously use technology to solve pain points, and improve consumer experience.
The realization of this overall goal mainly revolves around the dimensions of screen, image, security, software and hardware collaboration.
First look at the screen, as a direct medium for information transmission and interaction, to a large extent, it is the first threshold. However, many manufacturers almost do not make any adjustments to the screen, resulting in a poor visual experience.
In order to improve this situation, Honor and BOE set up a screen joint innovation laboratory, when the industry generally supports 480Hz LTPO screens, so that Magic4 for the first time to achieve 1920Hz high-frequency PWM dimming function on LTPO screens, both adaptive high brush power saving and smoothness, as well as better eye protection effect.
In terms of images, in 2021, the Honor Magic3 series will first launch multi-main camera fusion computing photography technology, through pixel-by-pixel processing of photos to obtain the best photo effect and optimize the user's photo experience.
It is worth mentioning that Apple's 12 million pixel camera, the reason why it does not lose the domestic flagship mobile phone, one of the secrets lies in this.
In addition, the issue of personal privacy in smartphones has always been a matter of great concern. Answering calls in relatively quiet public places such as elevators, conference rooms, and taxis, without worrying about the call being overheard and absolutely confidential, is the rigid demand of many high-end users.
The Honor Magic series adopts independent hardware security chips and dual TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) software security protection, and ensures the landing of this demand through the integration of software and hardware.
In order to maximize the performance of each hardware, Honor also uses AI as the underlying logic to tune the image, screen, and chip.
Taking the chip as an example, the new generation of Magic4 further empowers the three turbo technologies through the Magic Live intelligent engine, which greatly stimulates the potential of the chip and brings powerful performance to the mobile phone.
In Zhao Ming's words, "A high-end chip is like a Green Dragon Crescent Moon Knife, which is plain in Zhou Cang's hands, but in Guan Yu's hands, it has become an artifact." ”
From the local to the whole, Honor adheres to the research and development of the underlying technology and the joint innovation with the supply chain, and has effectively overcome many user pain points. This is also why Honor can successfully complete the progress from low-end to high-end and become a strong competitor in the high-end mobile phone market.
【03】
After Huawei faded out, it changed the situation of "Apple is the only one" and became the common goal of many brands.
In a group interview after the Magic 4 conference, Zhao Ming said, "To comprehensively benchmark Apple, we must let consumers feel that there is an experience beyond Apple." At the Xiaomi 12 series conference held at the end of 2021, Lei Jun also put forward the slogan of benchmarking Apple.
But at present, whether it is brand potential or technical strength, it seems that the manufacturers are not enough to face Apple head-on. And if they want to beat Apple, they need to learn from Apple.
In the last mobile phone revolution, Apple relied on the software and hardware collaboration capabilities represented by multi-touch, and since then, technological breakthroughs in chips, screens, images and many other fields, and has comprehensively hung the previous boss Nokia in the use experience.
By redefining the mobile phone market, Apple has been able to become a new generation of giants. Nowadays, domestic brands that look forward to leading the wave of a new generation of mobile phones are facing the same situation.
In this regard, Zhao Ming has a clear understanding: "Configuration is not equal to brand, and patching together high-end components is not equal to innovation." "The product form of smart phones has not been a breakthrough change for too long, and the violent changes in external technologies may be the driving force for a new round of revolution in the mobile phone industry."
At this level, brands with forward-looking vision and in-depth cooperation with relevant supply chains will undoubtedly have a first-mover advantage.
Therefore, Glory chooses to form a relationship between you and me and I have you with partners in the supply chain, on the one hand, using Honor's understanding of the mobile phone industry and consumer pain points to lead the entire industry forward, so that Glory's breakthrough will bring improvement to the industrial chain, and at the same time, the progress in various fields will force Glory to continue to run forward and make a better main force.
"We can be on a par with any friend in this field, which is actually our strength."
Today, through the iteration of Magic products, Honor has truly sat on the high-end. From Zhao Ming to Glory, every employee still adheres to the value of adhering to the underlying innovation, and pays attention to the accumulation and breakthrough of the core underlying capabilities.
For Glory, there is no rush to achieve results, in the mobile phone market competition, we must tremble and walk on thin ice, there is no fluke to speak of.
The relationship with Huawei has also led many consumers to look at glory with a more critical eye. Zhao Ming believes that this is a good spur for the Glory team.
"You must come up with products that go beyond the existing technological innovations and experiences in the industry to be recognized by others."
【References】
[1] "The first battle was lost, how to break through the high-end of domestic mobile phones?" The old battlefield has a new story! "Chinese businessmen's strategy
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