Release two flagships a day, Huawei mobile phones out of the haze?

Produced | Tiger Sniff Technology Group

Author | Marutsune-san

Edit | Ivan Chen

Head figure | Huawei official

30 months after the "chip cut" incident, Huawei mobile phones have made new progress.

On March 23, Beijing time, Huawei held a spring new product conference, including Huawei P60, Mate X3 folding screen and other new products were unveiled.

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Due to well-known reasons, Huawei's flagship model released this time is still not eligible for 5G, but in mobile images, communication technology and industrial design, Huawei's performance is still remarkable. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time in Huawei's history that two flagship series have appeared on the same stage, which also shows that Huawei's adverse impact from the supply chain is gradually weakening, and the speed of product development has begun to return to the right track.

However, Huawei's current situation is still not optimistic. On the one hand, the sluggish performance of the smartphone market may not be able to bottom out this year, and in the competition in the existing market, the relatively high price of Huawei's terminal products is not dominant. On the other hand, although Huawei has completed the localization of most devices, the lack of 5G chips is still a problem that consumers cannot ignore.

The future of Huawei's terminal business is still full of challenges.

Huawei's flagship in 2023, color geometry?

Different from the "mystery" before the release of new products in the past, Huawei has exposed new products through various channels in recent days, and the functions of this released model are not too unexpected, and they are more inclined to upgrade the original functions. One of the biggest highlights comes from the upgrade of imaging technology and the progress of folding screens.

From the perspective of appearance design, both the P60 series and the folding screen Mate X3 have maintained Huawei's consistent high level, while retaining the overall family design style, through the matching of fuselage materials and the adjustment of lens modules, showing the differentiated competitive strategy of the flagship model.

In terms of functional applications, the focus of P60 series upgrades naturally falls on image capabilities.

From the perspective of the previous upgrades of the P series, the P20 series can be described as the prelude to the "night scene shooting" of smart phones, the P30 series makes periscope lenses mainstream, and the P40 series allows people to see the advantages of optical zoom in various dimensions.

On this generation of P60 series models, Huawei has placed the keyword of image upgrade on "light intake".

P60 main camera structure, image source: Huawei official

At the press conference, Yu Chengdong focused on the "XMAGE image platform", which through the combination of ten variable aperture + large aperture high lens group + RYYB super sensor to increase the light intake of the P40 by 191% compared with the iPhone Pro Max, and the higher-end P60 Pro, its telephoto lens was replaced with a 48 million pixel optical zoom periscope telephoto, and the light intake was increased by 488% compared with the iPhone Pro Max.

It is worth mentioning that the "satellite communication" function that attracted much attention on the Mate 50 last year was also upgraded by Huawei this time. Now, the "Beidou Short Message" function on the P60 series and Mate X3 has been upgraded from "one-way sending" to "two-way sending and receiving", which can realize the sending and receiving of text, which further enriches the practicality of this function.

However, for consumers, the "satellite communication" function may be a plus, but it is difficult to become a rigid need, after all, in the barren land without communication network coverage, most people still prefer to carry a satellite phone with a call function.

Overall, the upgrade of the P series in terms of imaging is still eye-catching, firmly defending the honor of the "image flagship" in the Android camp, compared to other upgrades, it seems a little decent.

The folding screen Mate X3, another model at this conference, is amazing. Compared with the previous generation, the upgrade strategy of Huawei Mate X3 is very targeted, that is, to solve the "pain point" of the current folding screen mobile phone.

Image source: Huawei official

The first is the weight, on the Huawei Mate X3, the weight of the fuselage is controlled at 239g. An intuitive comparison is that the iPhone Pro Max body weighs 240g, and we have reason to believe that this gram weight is not a coincidence. Perhaps, in the product establishment stage, the development team set the goal of "folding screen lighter than tablet machine".

To this end, Huawei has made all-round upgrades to the body mechanism and key components of the Mate X3. According to Yu Chengdong, Huawei Mate X3 uses ultra-light diamond aluminum and carbon fiber materials to achieve breakthrough weight reduction in the fuselage structure, and at the same time redesigns the "double rotary water drop hinge", through the dual-track shaft drive unit, the thickness of Huawei Mate X3 in the unfolded state is as thin as 5.3mm. Because the screen is too thin, Huawei even had to re-develop the Type-C interface to adapt to the fuselage.

In terms of price, the starting price of the P60 series is 4488 yuan, and the starting price of the Mate X3 series is 12999 yuan.

An inseparable position

Since 2021, in the shipment list announced by IDC, Huawei's name has been included in the ranks of "others", and in the smartphone industry, whether it is market share or influence, Huawei has long been much weaker.

Market share and year-on-year growth rate of China's top five smartphone manufacturers in 2022, data source: IDC

In the fifth year of 5G commercialization, 5G models cannot be sold due to external factors, which is a shortcoming that cannot be ignored. It is difficult for Huawei's market share to fluctuate significantly in the foreseeable future, at least until the 5G chip problem is solved, but for this company, the iteration of the flagship model will continue anyway.

On the one hand, the mobile phone business is the hub of the entire consumer business. A senior industry insider told Tiger Sniff that Huawei's Hongmeng, wearable, TV, smart home, and even automotive sectors are all mobile phones as the core, without mobile phones, these sectors will lose contact with each other, and the mobile phone business is also important for market brand building, maintenance of distribution channels, etc., so Huawei cannot give up.

At the same time, Huawei's mobile phone products, especially flagship products, play a price anchoring role in the entire terminal BG (consumer BG before the name change). At this conference, Huawei also showed the flagship watch "WATCH Ultimate Extraordinary Master", which supports satellite communication and almost all health detection functions on the market.

Of course, its pricing is also "high-end", starting at 5999 yuan. This price is unimaginable for most manufacturers, but based on the huge audience of Huawei's flagship models in the high-end market, it can fully support the price of its product line.

By extension, the impact of the mobile phone business on the entire group is very far-reaching. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei recently said at a symposium of winners and experts inside and outside the company that Huawei's R&D expenditure in 2022 will be US$23.8 billion, equivalent to about RMB162.4 billion. According to its 2021 financial report, Huawei's total investment in R&D reached 142.7 billion yuan in that year, and R&D investment increased instead of declining.

Huawei needs enough profits to support R&D, and among Huawei's three major business segments, terminal BG is undoubtedly the most stable and direct source of cash flow.

For the current situation of "no 5G chips" available, Huawei is also working hard to develop its strengths and avoid its weaknesses. For example, go all out to sprint the folding screen market segment. For Huawei, the good news is that although 5G has been commercialized for many years, there is no real "killer application" on the consumer side, which also dilutes the replacement needs of some consumers, but the transformation of folding screens for mobile phone forms and the extension of use scenarios have made this market segment gain momentum in recent years.

According to IDC statistics, domestic folding screen mobile phone shipments reached 1.45 million units in 2021, and the domestic folding screen market continued to maintain a steady growth trend in 2022, increasing by 118% year-on-year to 3.3 million units. A visual comparison is that in the same period of 2022, overall smartphone shipments fell by 13.2% to 1.21 billion units.

In the folding screen market, Huawei's leading edge has been quite obvious. According to data released by iResearch, Huawei mobile phones have achieved 51.3% of the market share in China's folding screen market in 2022, and they have accounted for more than 50% of the market's shipments for three consecutive years.

With the experience of 5G chips, Huawei also attaches great importance to the localization of the folding screen industry chain. An industry insider told Tiger Sniff that in the core devices of folding screen mobile phones, such as hinges, flexible glass covers, MIM (metal powder injection molding) devices, liquid metal, etc., domestic suppliers can come up with complete solutions, and in the early development stage of these industries, Huawei mostly participated in the investment layout and gave support in research and development, making it the foundation of Huawei in the folding screen industry.