Burning Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Author|Cao Yang
Edit| Rao Xiafei
High-end market, full-scenario layout and car manufacturing, the three key layouts of domestic mobile phone manufacturers at this stage. From the current point of view, the power point of glory is in the first two.
At 2:30 p.m. on April 13, Honor released the new Honor MagicBook 14 series in Xi'an. Guo Rui, CMO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., mentioned at the press conference, "Magic is Honor's technological idealism, whether it is a mobile phone or a laptop, it needs to break through the various ceilings of the industry and itself. ”
Photo: Honor MagicBook 14 series press conference
Source/Combustion Dimension screenshot
This opening seems to be quite similar to the opening remarks of Honor Terminal CEO Zhao Ming, "out of blue, saluting and surpassing industry benchmarks" at the huge Magic5 series new product launch conference in Shanghai one month ago.
In addition, the similarity between the two conferences is the confidence and confidence of the two executives of Honor when introducing the product.
Guo Rui mentioned at the press conference, "The battery life of MagicBook 14 can completely get rid of battery anxiety, no matter how long you have on the business trip, you can 'charge one trip at a time'." "In high-load scenarios and games and other scenarios, the MagicBook 14 Pro has also been compared with Lenovo ThinkBook 14+2023 and Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro14 2023, and the results are of course self-evident.
At the press conference on March 6, Zhao Ming also did not hide his pride when introducing many functions of the Magic5 series, iPhone14 Pro Max, Huawei Mate 50 Pro have become "supporting roles", and "hanging" has been used by Zhao Ming many times.
In this regard, Ma Jihua, founder of Darry Consulting, said that after Honor leaves Huawei's system, it needs to boost market channels and consumer confidence, and also needs to reintegrate to improve morale. Therefore, "it is normal to be high-profile. ”
Guo Tianxiang, senior analyst at IDC China, added, "Taking the Magic5 series mobile phone conference as an example, it is the first large-scale offline conference of manufacturers in three years of the epidemic. Secondly, it also shoulders the publicity task of Glory's overseas expansion and the requirements for brand building to continue to impact the high-end goal. ”
As Guo Tianxiang said, at the beginning of this year, Zhao Ming's "surpassing Huawei" at the MWC conference in Barcelona and the first release of the Magic5 series were considered by the outside world to be the determination of Honor to lay out overseas markets.
It's just that compared with domestic, going overseas is not easy.
Industry insiders told Ran Dimension that the rapid return of Honor in the domestic market is because, on the one hand, after its divestment of Huawei, the market share fell to the bottom, and the bottoming rebound itself will produce an intuitive and significant improvement in data.
On the other hand, whether it is technology or channels, Glory has undoubtedly been "stained with Huawei's light" in the past two years in China. But in the overseas market is very different, whether it is brand, technology, or channels, there are no advantages of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, there are drawbacks in themselves, not to mention that it is even more difficult to deploy high-end in the European market.
Shen Meng, chief strategist of Guangke Consulting, analyzed, "Without mastering the core technology, only limited innovation at the application level is not enough to form a differentiated competitive advantage." Coupled with security considerations, therefore, the resistance of domestic mobile phones to the development of overseas high-end markets is huge. ”
And glory, if you want to go further, obviously need to work harder.
01
Huawei's residual temperature
In the past few years, Huawei's "support" for Honor is obvious to all.
Ran Jiyuan wrote in the article "Channel Providers "Save the Glory", "Huawei's distribution and operation models are all state-contracted models, that is, after the mobile phone is produced, it is given to the national contractor, which distributes it to each provincial contractor, and then the provincial package is directly supplied to the distributors in the province." In addition to their respective online sales, Huawei and Honor basically supply the national contract. ”
At that time, among the 30 agents and dealers who "took over" Glory, including Putian Taili, China Post and Telecommunications Equipment, and Tianyin, they were all national contracts of Huawei. Beijing Songlian and Shenzhen Aished are glorious national bags. This also means that Huawei is keeping the most core part to glory.
In fact, Huawei's "support" for Honor does not stop there.
According to Tianyancha data, Zhao Ming, the current CEO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., joined Huawei in 1998 and served as the president of Honor in March 2015, fully responsible for the Honor business. Wan Biao, the current legal representative and chairman of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., was once a senior "veteran" of Huawei. After joining Huawei in 1996, he served as President of Huawei's Wireless Product Line, President of Device Company, and Chief Operating Officer of Consumer Business.
At the same time, Fang Fei, who served as the president of the product line of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd. in November 2020, was the vice president of Huawei's consumer business product line, mainly responsible for positioning the product lines of Huawei's nova, imagination, play, and Maimang.
In addition, in 2021, Zhao Ming said in an interview with the media that the overall team of New Glory has 8,000 people, of which more than 4,000 R&D teams retain some of the former Huawei system R&D teams. In addition to the team, many original Huawei systems, including camera technology and processes, as well as exclusive technologies such as Link Turbo and GPU Turbo, which Honor has always been proud of, have all migrated to the new Honor company.
It is precisely because when "leaving" took away so much of Huawei's essence that the outside world believes that the reason why Honor can achieve remarkable results in the early stage of self-reliance, especially in the early stage of fast running, is inseparable from the residual temperature of "Huawei".
On social platforms or news reports, "How much did Huawei and Ren Zhengfei help Honor?" Moving: After a long time apart, Huawei is still doing its best to escort the glory" "How long can the glory be 'glory' after being supported by Huawei? It seems that since November 2020, when Honor officially separated from Huawei, it has never stopped.
Source/Visual China
Perhaps wanting to get rid of the "Huawei" label, or seeing the power that the "Huawei" label brings to glory, in a recent interview with domestic and foreign media, Zhao Ming said bluntly, "Huawei has a very large system, industrial capabilities, technological innovation capabilities, operations, etc. are all industry benchmarks, worthy of honor and learning." But we just want to surpass Huawei and become a new benchmark. ”
In this regard, Guo Tianxiang said bluntly, "It is undeniable that Glory can have its current growth, more or less stained with some of Huawei's dividends." ”
But at the same time, Guo Tianxiang also pointed out that Honor knows that this dividend will not last, "so after standing firm in the market, it will invest a lot of energy and financial resources in product research and development." Start from the product and enhance our own competitiveness. ”
Ma Jihua added that Honor used to borrow resources accumulated by Huawei for many years, and now it is very difficult to start over, and it cannot be rushed. "Despite the dark moments, at least for now, Glory is walking steadily."
02
Galloping glory
As Ma Jihua said, in June 2021, Zhao Ming mentioned at the Honor 50 series press conference that the glory after the solo flight experienced the darkest moment of 211 days. Honor's domestic mobile phone market share once fell to 3%, "when Honor shipped the least, it was only one-fifth to one-tenth of the original." But now, Honor's market share has recovered to 8%. ”
In the following time, Glory can be said to have turned on the "Crazy" mode.
IDC data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2021, Honor won the second place with 14.2 million units shipped and 17% market share, a significant increase of 253% year-on-year. In 2021, the glory that once faded out of the eyes of consumers, with 38.6 million units shipped and 11.7% market share, returned to the top five positions in domestic smartphone shipments, ranking fifth.
In 2022, Honor will directly become the only brand among domestic smartphone manufacturers to achieve positive growth.
IDC data shows that in 2022, the top five smartphone manufacturers in China's smartphone market are vivo, honor, oppo, Apple and Xiaomi, with market shares of 18.6%, 18.1%, 16.8%, 16.8%, and 13.7%, respectively. Among them, except for Honor, which achieved a year-on-year increase of 34.4%, other mobile phone manufacturers have negative growth.
In addition, in the data from Counterpoint Research and Canalys, two research and consulting institutions, although the data of the three institutions are different, the top 5 brands are in a downward trend except for Honor against the trend. Although Apple has risen slightly, it is also weaker than itself.
According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone sales in China will decline by 14% year-on-year in 2022. Among them, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi decreased by 27%, 23% and 19% year-on-year, respectively. The Honor brand rose prominently, up 38% year-on-year.
According to the report from Canalys, the top five brands in China's smartphone shipments in 2022 are VIVO, Honor, Apple, OPPO and Xiaomi. Among them, Honor and Apple, which achieved full-year growth, increased by 30% and 4% respectively.
Talking about the rapid development of Honor, Ma Jihua analyzed that after two years of efforts, Honor's supply chain should have been reshaped, and stability can be guaranteed. After receiving the support of dealers and the current smartphone market is in the "dormant period" of the industry waiting for upgrading, it quickly returned to the first-line brand position.
Guo Tianxiang expressed a similar view on this. "The supply chain has completely established a normal supply relationship, and the supply time of some new components has also entered a normal rhythm." Guo Tianxiang further added that in addition, there were a slight problem with channel inventory in the previous months, which has been gradually resolved. On this basis, dealers continue to expand dealers at all levels, especially in the second half of last year, the restoration of the overseas dealer system has also given Honor more capital.
The affirmation of data and the industry naturally gives Glory more confidence.
At the Honor Magic5 series press conference, Zhao Ming confidently emphasized, "Honor has always emphasized doing 'right and difficult things', breaking the barriers of industry innovation, and being a new innovation leader in the mobile phone industry." ”
Photo: Magic5 press conference
Source/Burning Dimension Shooting
Zhao Ming further said, "The people-centric technological innovation of the Honor Magic5 series is confident to lead the experience upgrade of high-end flagships to meet the needs and desires of consumers. As the explosion of Honor technology in 2023, the Honor Magic5 series will promote Honor towards the ideal of a global iconic technology brand. ”
03
It's fast, but it's not enough
Zhao Ming's "global iconic technology brand" is going to sea.
In fact, the Honor brand's road to the sea began in 2022.
In February 2022, Honor debuted the Magic4 series at MWC in Barcelona. This year is also regarded as the first year of Honor mobile phone going overseas after independence, but in this year, Honor's overseas business promotion is not as expected.
Photo: Magic5 press conference
Source/Burning Dimension Shooting
According to OMDIA data, Honor's global market shipments in 2022 will only be 59 million units, with a global market share of about 5%. Another set of data from Canalys shows that Honor's domestic market shipments reached 52.2 million units in 2022, ranking second. Combined with this data, Honor's shipments in overseas markets in 2022 will only be 6.8 million units, accounting for only 11.5% of the overall mobile phone shipments.
In this regard, Guo Tianxiang analyzed that Honor mobile phones go overseas, or other domestic mobile phones go overseas, almost all face common problems. On the one hand, in fact, for Chinese manufacturers, overseas brands are not inferior in terms of products, especially compared with Android products, and even have advantages in many aspects, but brand power still needs to be improved. If overseas consumers' recognition of domestic mobile phone brands is improved, and the impression of Chinese products is low-end and cheap, it is a key issue.
"In addition, cooperation with local operators is crucial, especially in markets where operator channels dominate such as Europe and the United States. In addition, factors such as local culture can also bring uncertain pressure. Guo Tianxiang further emphasized.
Ma Jihua added that it is not easy for domestic mobile phones to go overseas, especially for Glory who takes the high-end overseas route, brand building and long-term channel construction are required.
"When Honor entered Europe, we chose a correct and difficult path: the most difficult flagship and high-end market competition, which is even more difficult. No matter what the outcome, it is a huge impetus to the improvement of the capabilities of our entire system, and we will definitely adhere to this strategy. In an interview with Tencent Digital, Zhao Ming said.
Obviously, Glory knows that going to sea is not easy, but it also knows that going to sea is the way it must go. After all, the global mobile phone market is weak, and major mobile phone manufacturers must continue to "open source" if they want to further seize the market.
According to the statistics of Glorious Sun Big Data, from 2017 to 2022, the global smartphone shipments will be 1.559 billion, 1.500 billion, 1.479 billion, 1.331 billion, 1.391 billion and 1.219 billion. It is not difficult to see that despite the impact of the epidemic in the past two years, global smartphone shipments have declined since 2017.
Gartner forecasts that total global electronics shipments, including PCs, tablets and mobile phones, are expected to decline by 4.4% to 1.7 billion units in 2023. Among them, smartphone shipments are expected to decline by 4%, with total shipments of 1.23 billion units, down from 1.28 billion units in 2022.
In addition to constantly exploring new markets, folding screen mobile phones and full-scene layout have also become the two major categories that mobile phone manufacturers must attack to seize the market.
In terms of folding screens, according to TrendForce's latest forecast, IDC data, in the past 4 years, shipments of folding screen mobile phones have increased by as much as 13 times. According to the agency's latest forecast, annual global shipments of foldable smartphones will grow from about 13.5 million units in 2022 to about 18.5 million units in 2023.
In this regard, Guo Tianxiang pointed out that at present, folding screen products mainly shoulder the heavy responsibility of impacting the high-end market. Especially in the case of domestic Android mobile phone manufacturers in the unfavorable impact of straight board machines on the high-end market, folding screen, as a product that can be differentiated from Apple, or become a representative of high-end products.
"However, the development and popularization of folding screens will take a period of time to develop and upgrade technology and software." For example, the weight and thickness of the whole machine on the hardware, screen creases, screen folding quality and other problems still need to be further solved. Software adaptation is also very important, the support of many applications is not enough, and the sense of experience needs to continue to improve. ”
Talking about the full-scenario layout, Guo Tianxiang said that mobile phone manufacturers expand the full-scenario multi-terminal field, first, the development of the mobile phone market has entered a bottleneck period, and the development of other terminal forms can find new growth points, such as the popularity of the tablet market in the past two years, and the development of VR/AR in the meta-universe in the future. The second is to take mobile phones as the core, combined with other multi-terminal forms, bind their own brand users, and form a brand moat.
"The full-scenario terminal layout is the development of the ecosystem. Through the system, enterprises can open up a variety of terminals, establish a complete ecological chain, and get more development in software. Guo added.
As Guo Tianxiang said, at the new product launch of the Honor MagicBook 14 series, Guo Rui introduced in detail the milestone innovations achieved by the Honor MagicBook series. He also mentioned that "MagicOS is Honor's comprehensive implementation of human-centric full-scenario strategy, based on the four root technologies of MagicRing Trust Ring, Magic Live Intelligent Engine, Turbo X System Engine and MagicGuard Honor Security, bringing core capabilities such as interconnection, intelligence, smoothness, and security." ”
Ma Jihua added that the whole scenario is a future-oriented layout, expanding business from mobile phones to achieve knowledge and technology sharing, which is an inevitable trend in the development of the industry. The folding screen is the position, this track can reflect the brand ability, but also the future may be a hot spot, mobile phone manufacturers dare not participate.
But Ma Jihua also said frankly, "But from a realistic point of view, the capabilities required for the whole scene are very extensive, and the market belonging to large players will further strengthen the concentration of the industry, and not all first-line mobile phone companies can survive in this track." ”
This means that there is much more glory has to do.
Resources:
"Honor mobile phone, running slower is not a bad thing", source: Lu Jiu Business Review.
*The title image and some of the accompanying pictures are from Visual China.
*Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information in this article or the opinions expressed constitute investment advice to anyone.