On April 13, 2023, Honor held the launch of the Honor MagicBook 14 series in Xi'an. From the time of the press conference, the total duration of this new product launch is only 27 minutes is extremely efficient, but on the whole, the arrangement of the whole event is actually a lot: in addition to the press conference, Honor also held a dealer conference, CEO Zhao Ming and product line vice president Xiong Junmin accepted an exclusive interview with the media, from this entire tight schedule can be seen that Honor is indeed as Xiong Junmin said: "PC is the largest industry invested by Honor in addition to mobile phones, and we are firmly optimistic about this industry." ”
Use the "Trident" technology combination to communicate with users
At this conference, Honor clearly proposed the "Trident" technology combination, that is, the three aspects of high performance, long battery life and intelligent interconnection as the core of the experience of Honor notebook products. Personally, I think that compared with the technical terms such as OS Turbo, MagicOS, and MagicRing proposed last year, these descriptive words proposed at this conference are easier for ordinary consumers to understand, and naturally they can establish a direct impression of Honor's PC products faster.
I believe that this is not the result of the Honor team's brain, in an exclusive interview with Xiong Junmin, he mentioned a very interesting statistic: "Consumers who buy Honor notebooks have compared more than 90% of Huawei and Lenovo notebooks, which means that they finally chose us after a round of comparison." Less than 10% of consumers who buy their notebooks have compared Honor. This means that if these consumers can have the opportunity to compare with Honor, I believe there is huge potential in it. "This is both where we fall short and where we see hope." Yes, the Honor PC product line has only been operating independently for more than two years, and it has only been five years since it was involved in this brand, and if you want to quickly form awareness among consumers, you really need to use a language they can understand.
Regarding the issue of user communication methods, Xiong Junmin also mentioned it many times during the interview. At present, Honor notebook mainly focuses on the waist position of the notebook market, and the price is 4000 yuan ~ 6000 yuan of thin and light products, and this range, accounting for up to 40% of the entire notebook computer market, can be described as a battleground. At the same time, many consumers who buy notebooks at this price are young people, such as college students or beginners, who are relatively sensitive to price, but a considerable proportion of people also have some understanding of computers. For their use scenarios, the advantages of OS Turbo technology in battery life and performance make Xiong Junmin quite confident: "Welcome to test, we are not afraid." Glory has never been afraid to make horizontal comparisons with any friendly businessmen. ”
Originally, I didn't believe Xiong Junmin's statement that "I hope to be close to the level of Apple M1/M2 in the Wintel system", but when I checked the battery life data of the evaluation media test, I was a little surprised: the Honor MagicBook 14 with OS Turbo technology got a score of 9 hours and 10 minutes under its endurance model, which is very close to the more than 10 hours of Apple products (July 28, 2022, Geek Bay, "Apple M2 Deep Analysis"). You know, at that time, it was still OS Turbo 1.0, and the new MagicBook 14 series used the upgraded OS Turbo 2.0 and Intel Core 13 platform, and the performance in this regard was naturally better.
However, the test data under the fixed model can still only be used as a reference, and from my experience of using the Honor MagicBook 14 Pro 2023 during this time of business trip, OS Turbo 2.0 solves a problem that I have long had with Windows notebooks: unpredictable battery life. In the main usage scenarios of my commonly used WeChat chat, web browsing and codewords, the 75Wh large battery can basically ensure a relatively stable power drop, and unlike the notebook I used before, it is prone to large fluctuations - this is a common problem under the x86 architecture, especially for me with charging compulsive disorder. Yes, lowering the brightness of the screen or changing the battery operation mode may solve the problem, but working with a dim display is really unbearable, and who doesn't want to work more happily?
Honor's consumer research data shows that about 43% of users have a strong demand for battery life, and they also have rigid requirements for performance, which is typical of both want and want. At the same time, 90% or even 95% of the usage scenarios of ordinary users are the same, so OS Turbo makes advanced performance scheduling and accurate allocation of system resources for these typical usage scenarios, so that every point of power in the battery life scenario can be fully utilized. "Some single-scenario battery life is increased by 30%~50%, and in all scenarios it is increased by 10%~30%", such a summary is not only for the Chinese market, but even for the world, which requires Honor to prepare for this core experience from R&D, market research, product software and hardware design, etc.
Buck the trend and head on
After a strong rebound in the previous two years, the global PC market performance in 2023 can only be described as dismal. According to data released by IDC not long ago, the global PC market shipped 56.9 million units in Q1 2023, down 29% year-on-year; Data from Canalys for the same period showed that global PC shipments were 54 million units, down 33% year-over-year, which is already the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit declines in sales. But interestingly, among the top five manufacturers in the world, Apple's share of the Mac camp fell by nearly 20%, and the share of the four brands in the PC camp has increased to varying degrees, which shows that there are still structural opportunities in the PC market in the downturn environment.
It is not difficult to find that whether it is a mobile phone manufacturer involved in the PC field or a traditional big brand such as Apple, the interconnection of multiple devices is one of the core capabilities to lock the user group and seize market share, and Glory is no exception. However, whether it is the views expressed by Xiong Junmin in the interview or Honor's long-term high requirements at the quality control level, it shows that Honor has a clear understanding of the current PC market: consumers choose Honor notebooks, first of all, to go to a high-quality and qualified PC, which is fundamental, and interconnection is just the icing on the cake.
With the guarantee of quality, Honor has the opportunity to use its own interconnection characteristics and use multi-device collaborative experience to win more consumers with brand loyalty. During a recent business trip, I used Honor MagicBook 14 Pro 2023, Honor Magic5 Ultimate Edition and Honor EarBuds 3 Pro to form a very interesting mobile office platform, when I read the web page in my notebook, the WeChat message received by the mobile phone will be automatically pushed to the computer screen, the mouse can display the content, and then I decide whether to reply, no longer need to light up the phone. Even the tablet I specially prepared for WeChat communication and interview shorthand can be put up without being set up, which is much more convenient, and this experience is really worry-free.
Of course, I personally have some regrets in the process of using this new product. The first is that there are also other media peers in the interview asked the weight problem, the current positioning of the higher V series and digital series, the weight is about 1.5 kg, on the contrary, the lower positioning of the X series about 1.3 kg of weight is more acceptable, but the screen specifications are much lower; followed by the keyboard of one of the core components of the notebook experience, it is still somewhat ordinary to use, and the use experience of the trackpad has also been improved. In this regard, Xiong Junmin said that with the further advancement of Honor's PC business, it will be gradually solved and improved, and the media and consumers are welcome to supervise together.
Write at the end
In recent years, as Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor and other mobile phone brands have successively entered the PC market, under their joint effect, this once conformist industry, has undergone significant changes, especially the product features are exciting, and consumers' attitude towards these brands is no longer doubtful, but actively embraced. After all, the PC's status as a productivity tool is still difficult to shake for the foreseeable future, even if we are full of complaints about the x86 system, even if we are full of expectations for the ARM platform, consumer choice and sales data are the best illustration. "Do what we can first", the glory notebook business, which has completely reversed the rhythm of the product, should be able to win more gains in the new year, in the market range that it values.