The "gentleman's dispute" between Honor and Huawei: the interpretation of extreme productism and technological idealism

智东西（公众号：zhidxcom）

Author | Yun Peng

Edit | Desert Shadow

Today, the core of the smartphone market competition has changed.

With the increasing diversification of smartphone functions and the in-depth integration of AI technology, consumers and manufacturers are paying more attention to the "quality" of products.

According to the latest data from Counterpoint, global high-end smartphone sales will increase by 6% year-on-year in 2023, far exceeding the market, and the proportion of sales will be close to 60%, reaching a record high. Hitting the high-end market has become the core goal of all leading manufacturers.

▲Sales share of the global high-end smartphone market in 2023 (forecast), source: Counterpoint

The high-end battle is a competition for the strength of hard-core technology and the unique advantages of the brand. Businesses need to truly "make their own thing".

Although every manufacturer is facing such a challenge, for Honor, this challenge may be more obvious and urgent - how can Honor get out of the "shadow of Huawei" and become an excellent mobile phone brand that is deeply rooted in the hearts of consumers?

Honor gave a "way to break the game": the ultimate productism of "two-wheel drive" based on consumer demand and innovation, as well as Honor's own scientific and technological idealism. Today, such persistence is widely blossoming, and in the third quarter of 2023, Honor's market share is the first in China, and Huawei used to be the first in China, and now Honor is sitting in this position.

▲The shipment volume and share of the smartphone market in Chinese mainland in the third quarter of 2023, source: Canalys

Glory has blazed a trail of its own.

With the exposure of various new technologies of the Honor Magic6 series, we see that Honor has become more and more determined at the head of the industry, leading the industry to achieve a lot of zero breakthroughs.

Recently, Dou Wentao had an in-depth dialogue with Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, and we can see more clearly how Honor has stepped out of its own path step by step, and how it has become an industry leader on a par with Huawei through innovation in technology, products, and experience.

▲Dou Wentao (left) and Honor CEO Zhao Ming (right) had an in-depth dialogue, source: Honor

Facing 2024, which is full of opportunities and challenges, Honor will surely become one of the most core variables in the entire smartphone market.

1. From a thick branch to a big tree, the glory of two-wheel drive continues to "kill yesterday's self" and find a place to "fight".

If the former Huawei is compared to a towering tree, perhaps the glory of the past is like a thick branch on this big tree, which has been reinserted into a new soil and grown into another big tree.

In Zhao Ming's words, Glory has developed a lot of its own abilities almost from scratch, and the different soils and living environments have allowed the Glory tree to grow its own form and characteristics.

As Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, said, Honor wants to be Huawei's strongest competitor in the world, and today, Ren Zhengfei's expectations have become a reality.

Dou Wentao described this kind of competition as "gentlemen's dispute", gentlemen's dispute, can be both people and people, can also be brand and brand, in the market competition, no one will show mercy to whom, but both sides will recognize each other's really excellent products and technology.

In Zhao Ming's view, Glory can no longer become Huawei, and Honor is not Huawei, but the "undefined" Glory just has the best room for growth.

Zhao Ming also mentioned that ordinary people can't blame the people if they don't buy mobile phones, they still blame themselves. After the return of Huawei Mate60, many potential users went to buy Huawei Mate60, or because Huawei was competing, and mobile phone brands were all competitive.

The place where Glory "competes" lies in the precipitation of time and the accumulation of internal strength and ability, and the ultimate productism of its "two-wheel drive": to meet consumer needs and continue to innovate.

In the process of industry development, "being subverted" is inevitable, so Zhao Ming said that Honor has been doing one thing, that is, "killing yesterday's self", constantly and quickly running towards a higher goal. This also confirms the importance of "innovation" in what Zhao Ming once said that "the innovation cycle can do more than the economic cycle".

Regarding scientific and technological idealism, Zhao Ming said that most of the Honor team has a science background, and they really want to do something different, and they want to really make some technologies and functions that have never been seen or realized in this industry.

Perhaps this is the true embodiment of Arthur C. C. Clarke's famous quote that often appears at glory conferences: "Any technology that is sufficiently advanced is no different from magic." ”

From the oasis eye protection screen to the Qinghai Lake battery technology, Honor has led the eye protection war and battery life war in the machine circle;In terms of thinness and lightness, for the folding screen, from Samsung's 13.00 millimeters, to Huawei's 11 millimeters, and then to Glory's 9.9 millimeters, behind each millimeter, it may be hundreds of millions of yuan in R&D investment.

After three years of independence, Glory has broken all kinds of doubts from the outside world, from 2021 to 2023, from survival, internal skills, to full-scale outbreak, from 0 to the first in China. Honor is not Huawei, but after three years, there is no doubt that Honor has gradually walked shoulder to shoulder with Huawei and walked at the forefront of the industry.

2. Satellite communication solves the pain points of the industry, and the AI large model implements the end-side innovation experience, and Honor has become the vanguard of technological innovation

Today's Honor is very clear about what it wants to do, how to do it, how to take root in this industry to survive and achieve leadership, with the release of the Magic6 series approaching, whether it is a breakthrough in Hongyan satellite communication technology or the end-side landing of the AI large model, Honor has given its own unique answer in the industry, and achieved a leading position in technology and thinking.

Honor's self-developed Hongyan satellite communication technology solves the three technical problems of antenna size, call endurance, and communication experience, and realizes a mobile phone satellite communication experience with smaller size, more stable signal, and more power saving.

In terms of satellite communication technology, Honor has shown its own "pattern": to benefit the industry and consumers. In Zhao Ming's view, Honor wants to accelerate the progress of the entire industry. It is foreseeable that in the future, many manufacturers will use the shadow of glory in the satellite communication solutions.

▲Zhao Ming used Glory Hongyan satellite communication technology to make a satellite call with Dou Wentao

In addition to satellite communication, another "star" technology that will soon land in the Magic6 series is the device-side AI model.

In just one year, generative AI products represented by ChatGPT have swept the world, and in the past six months, various manufacturers have successively applied AI large models to smartphones.

There are two main dimensions of thinking about Honor's device-side model: first, the larger the model should be used more and more easily, the more you use it, the more you understand you, serve the user's personal service, know what the user wants to do next, and provide the best service and support to the user;

In Zhao Ming and Dou Wentao's discussion of AI, Zhao Ming gave a subtle description: "Isn't parental guidance a kind of AI?"

The cloud model synthesizes the results of thousands of years of common learning and Xi of all mankind to give universal guidance to everyone. In contrast, some of the things that our parents have experienced and the memories in our minds are also some form of data, which can guide each of us in our lives through analysis.

Parents' guidance is like a large model on the end side, giving children personalized education and help, and the big model on the end of the Honor Magic6 is like the closest and most understanding parents.

▲Honor MagicOS 8.0 in any door function, you can achieve one-click drag and drop to create schedules

From 2016 to the present, Honor has been deepening the application of AI in the operating system, and the role of the AI model is to "accelerate enablement", so that this vision will gradually come to life.

3. Many "big moves" are around, and the new "optimal solution" product Honor Magic6 series is about to come out

It can be seen that Honor's value proposition drives them to constantly break through the boundaries of thinking in different fields, focus on consumer needs, and make "optimal solution" products through innovation.

According to the information that has been officially announced, we can foresee that the Magic6 series will achieve at least three "best" in eye protection, communication and battery life. The further iteration of Oasis eye care technology, the update and upgrade of Qinghai Lake battery technology, and Honor's self-developed Hongyan satellite communication technology will all be realized on Magic6.

Finally, this time, the Magic6 series has also brought a lot of new ideas in terms of ID design, and its back camera continues the glory's "star wheel three cameras" arrangement, and the external contour draws on the "combination of square and circle" in the shape of "Yucong", which is quite characteristic of traditional Chinese culture.

Today,GloryMagic6The color scheme of the whole series has also been exposed,From "Sea Lake Blue","Streamer Purple",Then"Qilian Snow","Mailang Green",The wonders of mountains and lakes in the land of China cleverly fall on the fuselage,Leap in front of you。

▲ From left to right, the colors are: sea lake green, streamer purple, Qilian snow, wheat wave green

Conclusion: Three years later, it is a greater goal of ten years and a hundred years, and glory still has to be "dead" to the end

Whether it is Zhao Ming himself or the company Glory, it is somewhat of a "dead" spirit, and some belong to the "science and technology romance" of science and engineering men, but whether it is extreme productism or scientific and technological idealism, Glory has practiced in the research and development of technology and products.

Regarding the goal of the fourth year of glory, Zhao Ming once gave the answer - "no limit". Whether it is at home or abroad, whether it is an AI model or more new technologies in the future, Glory without limits can always bring us more surprises and expectations.