After Huawei Mate 60 series and Mate X5 went on sale, Huawei once again brought surprises to the ultra-high-end market.
At Huawei's autumn all-scenario new product launch conference on September 25, Huawei launched its new ultra-high-end brand ULTIMATE DESIGN Extraordinary Master, and invited actor Andy Lau to serve as the Huawei Mate60 RS Extraordinary Master brand ambassador.
Imagine that at the Huawei press conference, Andy Lau stood on the stage, reviewed his acting career and shared the stories of some extraordinary masters. He mentioned director Xu Anhua and described him as never pursuing trends because he is a trend himself. He also mentioned singer Lin Zixiang, calling him an unsurpassable target and his guide.
Andy Lau pointed out that everyone's starting line is different, but as long as you run unremittingly, no matter how slow and how long you walk, you will one day be able to reach your own peak.
Netizens who saw this conference called out surprises, saying that Huawei press conference can actually chase star Andy Lau on the spot, which is really far ahead! Some netizens even began to ridicule...
Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director and CEO of Terminal BG, announced: "The new ultra-high-end brand ULTIMATE DESIGN is an extraordinary master, from Porsche Design to ULTIMATE DESIGN, the brand has been fully upgraded. He also revealed that Huawei is working overtime to urgently produce Pioneer program products. Huawei's recently launched "Pioneer Program", the Mate 60 Pro\Pro+ and Mate X5 have been launched.
Although the conference did not announce more mobile phone information of the pioneer plan, Huawei's official Weibo released the first mobile phone of the new brand, Huawei Mate60 RS Extraordinary Master, which is the highest-end and most luxurious straight mobile phone launched by Huawei.
From the perspective of industry insiders, Huawei's transformation shows its determination to further deploy the high-end market. At the same time, this also reflects Huawei's typical representative of brand strategy, Huawei has previously launched its own image brand XMAGE. In terms of technology, from the Harmony operating system to the recently popular Starflash technology, these are the results of Huawei's independent innovation.
From another point of view, in the process of the rise of Chinese brands, more and more brands have begun to shift from the cooperation model to their own brand model. The independent innovation and recognition of domestic brands continue to increase, which also tests whether enterprises can truly obtain premium capabilities through brands.
According to reports, Huawei Mate60 RS adopts ultra-resistant high-end technology of basalt tempered Kunlun glass and ceramic materials. At the same time, it also introduces artificial intelligence technology, realizes satellite communication of 36,000 kilometers and the industry's first 10-stop variable physical aperture. Huawei Mate60 RS Extraordinary Master will be officially launched on September 28, with the 16+512GB version priced at 11,999 yuan and the 16+1TB version priced at 12,999 yuan.
For comparison, the Mate60 series showcased six new highlights in the promotional poster, including satellite talk, ultra-reliable basalt architecture, full-focal ultra-clear images, powerful performance, and HarmonyOS 4.0 system.
The Mate60 Pro+ adopts a Danqing arc design, with two colors of white and inkstone, and is equipped with a 40-million-pixel ultra-wide-angle lens, becoming the world's first mobile phone equipped with dual-satellite communication, supporting Tiantong satellite phone and two-way Beidou satellite message.
TechInsights predicts that Huawei's smartphone recovery journey will continue this year, with shipments expected to reach 35 million units, up 36% year-over-year. By the end of 2023, shipments of the Mate60 Pro in China alone are expected to exceed 1 million units, surpassing the previous Mate50 Pro model. The Mate60 series is expected to ship between 5 million and 6 million units during its lifetime (about two years).
In addition, according to the news, the extraordinary master brand not only covers mobile phones, but also includes watches and other series of products. At the beginning of this year, Huawei released the flagship smart watch HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate Extraordinary Master, which uses watchmaking material technology, Beidou satellite message function, anti-diving, super battery life, all-round health monitoring and scientific sports functions, becoming Huawei's highest-end products.
Now, the Extraordinary Masters family has ushered in a new product line. It can be said that Huawei has started the battle to return to the high-end mobile phone market. In the domestic market, Huawei and Apple have high-end brand power and appeal, and their showdown will continue as the Mate60 series and iPhone 15 series are launched one after another.
In addition, Huawei has also strengthened the entire product line of smart terminals, in addition to launching the Extraordinary Master brand, it has also released new hardware products such as tablets, watches, and smart screens. In the full-scene matrix ecology, the battle for giants has also become more intense.
HUAWEI'S FIRST SMART GOLD WATCH, HUAWEI WATCH ULTIMATE DESIGN, WAS ALSO FEATURED AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE. This is Huawei's high-end gold smart watch designed for elites from all walks of life. The product is made of 18K gold and supports two-way Beidou satellite messages.
In addition, Huawei also released the world's thinnest and lightest large-size tablet MatePad Pro, which has a "boundless" immersive large screen and is the world's first flexible OLED tablet. It has an ultra-high screen-to-body ratio of 94%, is the thinnest and lightest large-size tablet to date, has a body of only 5.5mm, weighs only 580g, and is available in three colors.
Also released is the world's first terminal product using Starflash technology - Huawei M-pencil.
In addition, Huawei also launched a flagship headset Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3, which brings ultra-CD-level lossless sound quality, equipped with the world's first audio chip Kirin A2 that supports Polar code technology. Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 realizes real-time optimization of triple hearing and provides three modes of noise reduction experience, bringing users a customized noise reduction experience.
At the press conference, Huawei also launched Huawei Smart Glasses 2, which has a trendy and stylish design, fully upgraded smart functions, and smart assistant Xiaoyi that connects to Huawei's Pangu AI model. With the help of the latest HarmonyOS 4 system, this product can intelligently remind users around the clock, not only broadcast weather, flights, schedules, taxi and other information on the mobile APP, but also users can get important information in real time when wearing glasses on the way.
Huawei Smart Car and Hongmeng operating system have also made new progress. The first sedan Smart S7 was officially unveiled at the press conference, and it will be available in late November, and is expected to surpass the Tesla Model S in size and specs.
It is understood that the Zhijie S7 is the first smart model jointly developed by Huawei and Chery, positioned as a pure electric coupe, and the English brand name is "LUXEED", but it has not been officially announced. Chery announced last year that it would launch at least five high-end smart electric models in cooperation with Huawei, and plans to launch two of them in 2023.
Huawei also introduced another SUV model, the M9, which will be released in December this year, which will use a new family design and Huawei's smart car full-stack technology solution.
When the news of the new car was announced, the audience shouted "far ahead" from time to time. Huawei's smart mobility business mainly covers six segments: Harmony cockpit, high-end intelligent driving, active safety, electric drive electronic control, and body control system. Yu Chengdong said that Huawei is "far ahead" in the fields of Hongmeng cockpit and high-end intelligent driving, especially high-end intelligent driving is the most difficult to do, and has invested a lot of resources.
In addition, Yu Chengdong also revealed that after the release of HarmonyOS 4, more than 60 million users were upgraded in just over a month, becoming the fastest upgrade version of HarmonyOS in history.
At the press conference, Huawei brought an upgraded version of HarmonyOS 4 and announced full access to the Pangu model. According to statistics in August 2023, the number of Hongmeng ecological devices has exceeded 700 million, and 2.2 million developers have participated in Hongmeng development.
At the same time, Yu Chengdong also revealed the next version of Hongmeng - HarmonyOS NEXT. According to him, the new HarmonyOS NEXT is ready to go, and native applications are fully launched, which marks a new chapter in the mobile application ecosystem. Huawei has trained millions of HarmonyOS developers and invested billions of dollars to support partner development, planning to fully implement HarmonyOS NEXT in 18 areas, and the developer preview version of HarmonyOS NEXT will be available to developers in the first quarter of 2024. In fact, Huawei has previously announced the news of HarmonyOS NEXT, which is of great significance to the development of HarmonyOS.
Looking back at the Harmony OS architecture in 2019, where the kernel included Linux kernel, Harmony Microkernel and LiteOS, Huawei planned to completely switch to Harmony OS in the future. This means that Android applications based on the Linux kernel can be compatible with HarmonyOS OS. HarmonyOS will use a completely self-developed microkernel.
After iteration after iteration, the Hongmeng kernel has been further developed, and Gong Ti, president of the software department of Huawei Terminal BG, once said that the autonomy rate of the Hongmeng kernel has reached 100%. This is also the result of Huawei's continuous investment in R&D and all-out efforts to achieve results in software.
Gong Ti also said that at present, the code volume of Hongmeng has exceeded 100 million lines and has more than 20,000 APIs, and the Hongmeng base is basically mature. At the same time, he believes that of the three major battles being fought by Hongmeng, two have been successfully fought, and the next most important one is to improve the Hongmeng ecology.
Huawei's press conference was full of new products and new news, which not only demonstrated Huawei's innovation strength in the field of hardware and software, but also demonstrated Huawei's persistent pursuit of the high-end market. Whether it is Huawei's ultra-high-end brand ULTIMATE DESIGN Extraordinary Master, or the new smart car business and the progress of the Harmony OS system, we look forward to more surprises for Huawei in the future