On the one hand, the impact of major brands on the high-end has reached a white-hot level, and on the other hand, under the pressure of maintaining stability and quantity, it has also entered the "price war" of bayonets.
And a major event that cannot be ignored in the mobile phone industry in 2023 is naturally the Huawei Mate 60 series, which exploded out of the circle without being sold first, which has not only repeatedly appeared on the hot list, but also triggered unprecedented discussions and rush to buy. Huawei maintains enough reverence for technology and firmly believes in the victory law of long-termism, and finally ushered in the harvest season.
"Black technology" leads the industry again and again
Huawei's road to independent innovation started very early, and at that time, when chips were not paid enough attention by the industry, Huawei had already stepped up its efforts to deeply deploy the chip industry, and soon put it into commercial use. In 2009, Huawei's first self-developed mobile phone chip, the K3V1, marked Huawei's entry into the smartphone era. Since 2012, when Huawei released the first officially commercialized mobile phone chip, K3V2, it has begun its "wild road".
In 2013, the Kirin 910 was launched, which is Huawei's first 4-core LTE SoC, and this chip is equipped on Huawei Ascend P6S, G6, G750 and other models. In 2018, the Kirin 980 became the undisputed king, and for the first time, Huawei launched a product that truly surpassed Qualcomm. Since then, Huawei's Kirin chips have continued to evolve and iterate in terms of architecture, process, AI, and 5G, and by 2020, the world's first 5nm 5G SoC Kirin 9000 will be ushered in. Huawei's accumulation of steps in mobile phone SOC has finally led to thousands of miles. Disruptive technological innovation and rapid technology iteration have brought unprecedented changes to the communications industry.
In order to achieve higher autonomy and controllability, promote the integration of software and hardware, and bring a simple, smooth, continuous, and secure full-scene interactive experience, in August 2019, Huawei publicly debuted HarmonyOS at the developer conference, officially launched HarmonyOS 1.0, and was first applied to smart screens.
In September 2020, Huawei released HarmonyOS 2.0 at the developer conference and announced the official open source of HarmonyOS, and in July 2022, Huawei launched HarmonyOS 3, which has 2 million+ worldwide as of the release of HarmonyOS 3Since the release of HarmonyOS 4 in August 2023, the number of HarmonyOS 4 devices has reached 700 million, and more than 60 million users have been upgraded.
In just four years from 2020 to 2023, Hongmeng's "spark has become a prairie fire" and "the light boat has crossed the Ten Thousand Mountains". Today, HarmonyOS has become the most vibrant ecological base, continuously bringing users a more cutting-edge smart experience, according to the latest news, the new HarmonyOS NEXT is ready to launch. In 2024, we also expect HarmonyOS NEXT to open a new chapter in the mobile app ecosystem.
Huawei has been playing a leading role, whether it is a far-sighted vision of the chip industry or a keen sense of developing a self-developed OS, it has set a benchmark for the entire industry and established an exploration model. Nowadays, we see that many brands have started the research and development of self-developed chips/OS, and Huawei has explored this road of exploration. Huawei's long-term commitment to "Huawei's long-term approach to follow-up" has endured and has taken on new characteristics in different eras, covering almost all aspects of mobile phone technology.
The underlying technology is comprehensively innovative
In addition to chips and systems, Huawei mobile phones are also focusing on key core technologies such as imaging, satellite communications, materials science, and folding hinges, improving overall performance and exploring the boundaries of mobile phone technology innovation.
In terms of imaging, Huawei pioneered the co-branding of mobile phones and camera manufacturers in China in 2016, attracting a number of domestic mobile phone manufacturers to follow suit, not only to create the ultimate mobile image experience to consumers around the world, but also to lead the trend of professional-grade mobile phone photography;
In terms of communications, Huawei is the first in the industry to bring the Mate 50 series that supports Beidou satellite messaging, and the subsequent 60 series and Mate X3 implement two-way Beidou satellite messaging. The Mate 60 Pro and Mate 60 Pro+ released this year support satellite calling for the first time, marking another breakthrough step in the field of satellite communications.
In terms of the core technology of folding screen mobile phones, Huawei began the research and development of waterdrop hinges in 2016, and successively applied for patents related to waterdrop hinge technology, and took the lead in installing it on Huawei Mate X2 in 2021, realizing the successful commercial use of waterdrop hinges. After Huawei, many manufacturers also use the "seamless" hinge flatness and fuselage closure as a selling point, driving the trend of "seamless" opening and closing of folding screen products. Today, this technology has become the preferred solution and industry standard for foldable screen phones.
Huawei is also committed to improving the durability and reliability of mobile phones, and has launched ultra-reliable Kunlun glass and non-Newtonian fluid materials to improve the drop resistance and impact resistance of the whole phone. In September this year, the Huawei Mate 60 series adopted an ultra-reliable Xuanwu architecture, integrating three layers of protection, and finally completely solved the problem of mobile phones not being able to withstand drops.
As can be seen from the above development process, innovation has always been a key driving force for Huawei. Huawei's self-developed technologies not only focus on chips, but also involve multiple dimensions, including imaging, materials, and communications. Through technology accumulation, Huawei has not only accelerated the iteration of mobile phone technology to reach the top in multiple dimensions, but also promoted the industry to continuously innovate and become a role model for many competitors to follow.
Push the domestic supply chain to a higher level
Huawei adheres to independent innovation, has made breakthroughs in a number of mobile phone technologies, and promoted the construction and development of the domestic supply chain.
Huawei has a long tradition of supporting the development of domestic supply chains, whether it is BOE screens, OFILM lenses, OmniVision CMOS...... With the support of Huawei's supply chain, both of them have achieved rapid business growth and industry reputation. In the future, the cooperation between the domestic supply chain and mobile phone terminal manufacturers will usher in in-depth cooperation and jointly define the general trend, and Huawei will continue to play a mainstay role in this wave.
Behind a Huawei mobile phone, there are dozens or even hundreds of domestic mobile phone supply chain manufacturers, when the enterprise obtains a large number of orders, forming a positive cycle of "business volume driving technological progress", the domestic supply chain will continue to advance, complete the transformation from mainstream to high-end, and then drive the domestic economic development, to achieve the rise of the domestic supply chain in the world.
Extreme innovation is the foundation of our existence
With the release of the Mate 60 series, Huawei has not only made consumers full of expectations for Huawei's future, but also injected new impetus into the development of the global technology industry. While breaking through the core software and hardware, Huawei's mobile phones have not rested on their laurels, but have shaped the confidence of scientific and technological innovation through high-intensity R&D investment. It is reported that in 2022 alone, Huawei's R&D investment will reach 160 billion, accounting for 25.1% of revenue, and the cumulative investment in the past decade has reached nearly one trillion.
Currently, Huawei has 21 R&D institutions and 36 joint innovation centers around the world. By the end of 2022, Huawei had more than 114,000 R&D employees worldwide, accounting for 55.4% of the total number of employees. Huawei's leadership in long-term competition through R&D and innovation is the key to Huawei's success in the future.
We often say that it is very difficult for a brand to make the transition to the top end, and what is even more difficult than that is to stay at the top end consistently. Huawei has told us over the course that its brand power comes from its unremitting commitment to technology research and development, its long-term commitment to technological innovation, and its continuous drive to the development of mobile phone products.
Nowadays, the brand building of Huawei mobile phones has come to a new track, through reconstruction and expansion, not only to achieve the branding of technology, but also to upgrade the brand from a single level of hardware or design cooperation to a comprehensive upgrade of images, materials, and processes, so that many friends have imitated, and built their own ultra-high-end brands, becoming the leader of the high-end domestic brands, so as to get rid of the involution of the market, and have the strength to compete with Apple, Samsung and other top global brands.