In the first flagship store in central China, Huawei's transformation path was also shown

When it comes to Huawei, what comes to mind first? Is it the "Leica photo" that was once sought after, the Mate X series folding screen flagship that refreshed many people's perceptions, or the "SA" and "NSA" disputes in the field of 5G technology.

To be fair, for the vast majority of consumers, "Huawei" was once equal to "Huawei mobile phone". However, in the past two years, with the sudden change in the supply chain environment, market share pattern, and smart phone technology direction, it has become increasingly obvious that the simple "mobile phone" is no longer the most prominent competitive advantage of Huawei. And this brand, which was once the first brand in the domestic mobile phone market share, has begun to transform the road.

At the end of April 2022, at a new commercial office product launch, Huawei officially announced that it would rename its "consumer business" to "terminal business". This move has not only aroused a lot of attention, but also let the outside world see Huawei's determination to transform on a larger scale now.

So what impact will Huawei's transformation have on ordinary consumers? Recently, we visited Wuhan MixC, the first Huawei flagship store in Central China that has just opened in Wuhan. In this flagship store, we also feel the great changes that have taken place in Huawei's products and ecosystems today.

The flagship store is located in the MixC In Wuhan, which just opened during the "May Day" period this year, in a separate building, with a huge glass façade of two stories high in addition to the huge "mixc MixC" logo, and on one side is a striking "HUAWEI" brand logo, which is highly recognizable from a distance.

Entering the store, the first thing you will see is several AITO Q&A M5 show cars. From here, Huawei's flagship store allows us to see some changes in their business focus today.

Of course, friends who know the M5 know that in fact, it is not the result of Huawei's own "car building" in the strict sense, but a product developed by Huawei and Jinconcelis, a subsidiary of Chongqing Xiaokang Industrial Group Co., Ltd., and produced by each other, and deeply integrates many of Huawei's on-board technologies. In other words, it is a good embodiment of Huawei's previous concept of "not building cars, but helping car companies build good cars".

Having said that, from the perspective of the display area in the store, Huawei is obviously quite concerned about the sales of the Q&I M5. In fact, in the store, you can not only experience a variety of different configurations of the M5, feel the effects of Huawei's smart cockpit, car desktop, and car audio, but also intuitively see a number of optional wheel hubs and interior material samples of this model.

Some friends may have found that the wall of Huawei's flagship store in the vehicle exhibition area is not marked with "smart cars" but "smart travel". And this may be a foreshadowing, or it may be a hint that "building a car" is not necessarily Huawei's ultimate goal in the field of transportation.

Of course, in addition to smart travel, other areas in the store are also the same, which is divided according to "usage scenarios" rather than "product categories".

For example, in the "smart office" area, you can see Huawei's laptops, tablets, monitors, and even a relatively more commercial MateStation all-in-one machine, and all of these products can be used to operate. And there are often Huawei mobile phones next to them for consumers to experience the multi-device interconnection function on the spot.

For example, in the "smart home" block, smart screens, smart speakers with screens, smart watches, smart cameras, VR glasses, etc., a series of products are also lined up. Through the on-site smartphones and tablets, you can intuitively experience the interaction between these smart home products and other devices, and the "chemical reaction" caused by their interconnection.

In addition, there are naturally large areas in the store that are used to display Huawei's mobile phones and tablet products. However, compared with the usual mobile phone stores, Huawei's flagship store has some subtle differences in the display of mobile phones and tablets.

First of all, the variety of devices displayed in the store is particularly complete, which not only means that including the Mate X2, P50 Pokect, and the newly released Mate XS2, etc., the scarce new machines on the market are readily available. And almost all models show all the color matching versions, some models even provide a variety of official protective case supporting displays, for friends who want to start, it will really feel that the choice is greatly broadened.

Secondly, most of the equipment display areas of other similar stores will deliberately emphasize the configuration information and the selling points on the main hardware. In the mobile phone and tablet display area of this Huawei flagship store, in fact, there is no hardware configuration information, but instead there are several desktop display boards, and basically emphasize the product's account system, software services, and after-sales advantages.

Yes, weakening the configuration information on the hardware and taking its own software experience and interconnection ecology as the main selling point is actually a very prominent feature of Huawei's multiple product lines.

Huawei just released the MatePad Paper electronic ink level board some time ago, with millions of book resources in more than 40 categories

Some friends may say that this is not cost-effective. Indeed, if you only look at the hardware configuration, running score and price, many of Huawei's products are actually under the calculation system of "hardware ÷ price", which does not have many advantages. But on the other hand, even so, Huawei's mobile phones, tablets, smart watches, and many smart home products still have a good sales performance in the market.

The staff demonstrated the use of Huawei mobile phones as the "digital key" of the Q&A M5

The reason is actually very simple, because the simple hardware configuration advantages do not necessarily mean the final experience advantage in many cases. And for a giant like Huawei, its huge stock customer base and diversified ecology are doomed to be able to do the ultimate in software functions and experiences as long as they are "appreciated" by consumers. After all, for consumers, the "value" and "not value" of the product, in the final analysis, still depends on whether the actual experience is in line with the price, rather than whether the profit margin of the manufacturer is high or not.

According to what we learned from the scene, with the transformation of "consumer business" to "terminal business", today's Huawei flagship store has initially equipped the ability to provide some commercial product solutions. This also seems to imply that huawei flagship stores may become more "diversified" in product display in the future, and will also be more focused on device interconnection and experience. But as to whether this approach will trigger other manufacturers to follow suit, it will take time to give an answer.