Text | Chinese Business Tao Strategy Zhang Jingbo
In 1924, the famous physicist Einstein opened the first Berlin Consumer Electronics Show (IFA).
That year, he was 45 years old and famous all over the world with his theory of relativity. As a result, the IFA has been branded as innovative. Over the past 100 years, many world-class industry leaders have emerged on this stage.
Today, a Chinese brand has landed on the world's main stage.
[Glory, let Berlin scream]
"Now, it's time for smartphones to move forward!"
On September 1, 2023, Honor CEO Zhao Ming delivered an opening speech entitled "Unfolding the Future" at the IFA main venue, showing the world the revolutionary new technology of Honor's latest folding flagship Magic V2.
This is the only Chinese technology brand to win this award at IFA in the past three years.
On July 12, Magic V2 was first released in China, causing a scream. More than a month later, Glory brought the Scream to Berlin to announce to the world:
Folding screen mobile phones enter the millimeter era!
Technology has allowed Glory to achieve progress to evolution, but this evolution is not limited to technology.
At IFA 2023, Honor also brought a new folding screen concept machine, the Honor V Purse, which will thin the folding screen body by 1mm.
Thinning is only the first step, and the real breakthrough is the R&D thinking behind it.
The Honor V Purse is both a folding screen and a handbag, and its outer screen can mimic the style of various fashionable leather bags.
The sexy design made the front of the glory booth crowded with onlookers and foreign media.
Technology has always felt cold, especially since the Industrial Revolution, when steel jungles and mass production have obliterated people's individual needs.
It was not until 1919 that the German Bauhaus school was born, and the human element was incorporated into industrial design.
Jobs, who absorbed the nutrients of the Bauhaus, abandoned Sony's strong industrial atmosphere, stood at the intersection of humanities and technology, and changed consumer electronics from cold technology to consumer screams.
Apple has since taken the world by storm.
Before the Honor V Purse, the Honor gave the impression of an engineer style, albeit technical, but a little less stylish.
Honor V Purse has changed this perception in the outside world, and it is another evolution of Honor's R&D thinking.
If Magic V2 brings use value to users with revolutionary technology, then Honor V Purse goes a step further and brings emotional value to users.
Use value satisfies people's basic needs, while emotional value can make people scream. This is Apple's secret magic weapon for many years.
With such a new product, Honor announced another evolution of itself: from technology to fashion, constantly breaking through the boundary!
As a result, it has reshaped the entire industry, and in the words of Honor CEO Zhao Ming, "Honor V Purse is an exploration of how technology can reshape the future of lifestyle." ”
Over the past few decades, many of the IFA players have been major global industry leaders, such as Sony, Samsung, LG and Space X.
An important reason why they have become industry leaders is that they have reshaped the industry.
[Behind it, is the power of reconstruction]
Reshaping an industry requires not only technical efforts, but more importantly, conceptual breakthroughs.
In 1915, more than two hundred years after Newtonian classical mechanics dominated physics, Einstein subverted people's cognition with his general theory of relativity, pointing out that the essence of gravity is the curvature of space-time.
This theory reshaped traditional physics, and Einstein became the new Taishan Beidou of physics.
Not only physics, the leaders in the business world, but also mostly the reshaper of the industry.
In 1979, the tape recorder was still a bulky machine that could only be listened to at home or in the office.
Once, Sony founder Ai Fukai Dai was on a business trip and had a whim to enjoy music on the plane, so a revolutionary product, the Walkman, was born.
Until then, it was thought that it was almost impossible to take music with you.
Similarly, before the Honor Magic V2, many people believed that the thickness of the folding screen mobile phone could not be reduced, and perhaps Huawei Mate X3 had achieved the extreme.
However, Honor abandons the limitations of thinking, returns to the original intention of making products, comprehensively reconstructs, breaks the boundary between straight plate machines and folding screens in one fell swoop, and brings folding screen mobile phones into the millimeter era.
This kind of conceptual breakthrough sometimes requires cross-border collision of ideas, especially in industries closely related to the public such as the consumer electronics industry.
Apple's feeling to the outside world is not only a technology brand, but also a fashion brand.
This feeling is due to Apple's strong human genes. Steve Jobs once said, "I like to live at the intersection of humanities and technology." ”
He doesn't want his products, like Sony's, to have only a cold, technological façade.
To inspire, Jobs often took his team to visit fashion stores of global famous brands like Tiffany.
This kind of standing at the intersection of science and technology and humanities, deep insight into consumer needs, has opened the gap between Apple and Sony, and it is precisely the weakness of many domestic brands.
Technology is important, but smartphones are not only a sign of technological innovation, but also an expression of the user's self and their lifestyle.
In this regard, Honor has taken a gratifying step for Chinese brands.
The Honor V Purse, released at the IFA, showcases the fusion of technology and fashion.
The Honor V Purse held by users is not only a mobile phone, but also an accessory, which can be changed to different personalized styles according to different scenes, as well as their own style and taste.
This is another important conceptual breakthrough and evolution in the field of folding screens after Magic V2.
The breakthrough of ideas is only the first step, and how to achieve it also requires determination and courage to break through all limitations.
In order to make the folding screen mobile phone within 1cm, Honor went deep into basic scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, and materials science, studied new materials, new processes, and new structures, and reconstructed traditional devices with the determination to tear down and start over.
In this process, Honor launched new technologies such as space hinges and shield steel, achieving more than 210 technological breakthroughs.
When developing the mortise and tenon integrated structure, because it was too difficult, the supplier bluntly said that we could not do it. No way, the glory R&D team had to borrow equipment and do things themselves.
In the end, the Magic V2, which was 9.9 mm thin and did not deform 400,000 bends, was born.
Behind this is Honor's adherence to long-term principles, patience to sit on the bench for ten years, and more than 10% of revenue is invested in research and development every year.
In the mobile phone industry, which likes to chase the wind, this is not easy.
However, Honor has also gained advantages in the fields of battery life, communication, imaging, screen, system, and security, and has established systematic research and development capabilities.
It is this ability that allows Honor to continue to innovate, turn various disruptive ideas into reality, and reshape the industry.
[Overseas, with a new standard-bearer]
In the smartphone industry, Apple has been the leader since the release of the iPhone in 2007.
In the international market, Apple mobile phones are sought after by consumers around the world. Samsung also led the way in sales with a strong supply chain and better price-performance ratio.
In contrast, Chinese mobile phone brands, in addition to Huawei, have been popular in the world for a period of time. Most of the time, it's just a spectator of the high-end market.
In the field of traditional straight plate machines, the technology has matured, and Apple and Huawei have taken innovation to the extreme.
However, folding screen mobile phones are still in the growth stage, various technologies are far from mature, and the space and difficulty for their innovation are greater. This gives many new mobile phone forces the opportunity to catch up and even surpass.
And Glory seized the opportunity.
Magic V2 breaks the boundary between the straight plate machine and the folding screen, and makes the folding screen mobile phone thinner than the straight board machine.
Before that, the reason why folding screen mobile phones became a niche product was that the technology was immature on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was not thin enough.
Magic V2 in a sense, punctured this layer of window paper.
From the perspective of market data, the smartphone market has declined for many years, but folding screen mobile phones are a rare category that is still growing at a high speed.
In the future, it is not ruled out that the double star of the straight plate machine will shine, or even compete with each other.
In this field, Apple has not yet entered the game, Huawei and Samsung, although strong, but not indestructible.
In fact, Honor Magic V2 has established advantages and barriers over Huawei and Samsung in some aspects. The record-breaking first sales proved its strength.
The hot sales of Magic V2 even helped Honor to rank first in domestic mobile phone sales for several weeks.
At IFA, Glory brought this whirlwind to Berlin, Germany.
A Honor V Purse that integrates technology and fashion, has further strengthened Honor's advantages and barriers in the field of folding screens, while conquering global consumers, and won a number of "Best of IFA 2023" awards at IFA.
Glory, one step closer to the dream of creating the strongest brand of folding screens.
In the overseas high-end market, after Huawei, there is another Chinese mobile phone brand, and the latter shoulders a heavy responsibility.
Although Huawei has made a strong return at home, it is difficult to play a role overseas in the short term due to various reasons. In contrast, glory has more room.
And it sets the goals and expectations of globalization.
In an interview with reporters after the IFA meeting, Honor CEO Zhao Ming said: For Honor, we will not see any ceiling in the future overseas development within five years!
Among them, Europe is the focus.
This is not only because the European market is large, more than 130 million units, but also ASP, that is, the average selling price is high, basically more than 500 US dollars, and Germany has reached 7800 US dollars.
The European market also recognizes products and brands, and like the North American market, it is the vane of the global high-end market. This will have more opportunities for an innovative and product-driven company like Honor to showcase itself.
Therefore, Honor has high hopes for the European market, and Honor CEO Zhao Ming even said:
"To some extent, the future European market may be Glory's second home market besides the Chinese market."
This process has begun and continues to accelerate. Data show that in the first half of this year, Honor's overseas shipments of mobile phones surged, with an increase of more than 130% in Europe and the Middle East, and an increase of more than 230% in Latin America.
Many of them are high-end phones, and they are doubling and growing.
After a long silence in the overseas high-end market, Chinese mobile phones have begun to make efforts again, only this time, there is a new standard-bearer.
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