Glory topped the Chinese market, what signal is released behind it?

Zhongguancun Online

2024-04-26 20:32Posted on Beijing Zhongguancun Online Official Account

On April 25, Beijing time, IDC, an authoritative data research agency, released a tracking report on China's smartphone market in the first quarter of 2024, which shows that the top five smartphone manufacturers in China are Honor, Huawei, OPPO, Apple, and vivo, accounting for 17.1%, 17%, 15.7%, 15.6%, and 14.6% respectively, of which Honor and Huawei are the only two mobile phone manufacturers among the top five brands to achieve positive growth, with a year-on-year increase of 13.2% and 110%.

China's smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2024 (Source: IDC Consulting Official Account)

China's smartphone shipments and growth rate from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024 (Source: IDC Consulting Official Account)

As in the past, IDC market shipment data objectively reflects some new changes in China's smartphone market, and from the Q1 report released this time, at least the following points are worth paying attention to:

First of all, with the gradual recovery of market demand, the Q1 smartphone market continued the rebound momentum at the end of last year, and the overall performance was better than expected, and the market recovered significantly.

In addition, the top five brands have once again undergone new changes, with Honor reaching the top and Huawei rising unabated, and the two have become the key forces driving the market recovery in Q1 while the share of other brands has decreased.

However, due to the close relationship between Huawei and Honor earlier, the industry had previously predicted that Huawei's return, Honor may be one of the directly affected brands, but judging from IDC data, Honor's share not only did not decline, but overwhelmed the crowd and seized the top spot in China's smartphone market.

The change in the top five places has brought about another interesting change is that Apple, which has always been invincible in the high-end market, has also begun to encounter obstacles, which also means that domestic mobile phone manufacturers represented by Huawei Honor are affecting the competition pattern of the high-end market little by little.

1. Dynamic changes in the market pattern have become the norm, and manufacturers must fight a "prepared battle"

As the saying goes: 30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi, is often used to describe the unpredictable development of things.

In the commercial market, especially in the consumer electronics market, this sentence has some truth, but it is not entirely accurate, and the reason is that this market is changing too fast.

After years of big waves, China's mobile phone market has entered the era dominated by giants very early, but with the progress of technology and the diversification of consumer demand, this seemingly "solidified" pattern is being impacted by more fierce competition, and the frequency is becoming faster, when the intensity of competition crosses the threshold, the most direct reflection is actually the change in market share.

Generally speaking, the dynamic change of the market pattern is the manifestation of market maturity and vitality, which is also valuable for the smartphone market. However, the more fierce the competitive environment, the more manufacturers are often required to continuously carry out technological innovation to adapt to the rapid changes in the current market environment. At present, the dynamic adjustment of the market pattern has become the norm, which puts forward higher requirements for participants.

This time, Honor won the first place with a market share of 17.1%, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%, and took the lead in handing over a good result in 2024, when variables and challenges coexist. This is not the first time that Honor has won the first place in the Chinese market, and it is not uncommon to rank in the top three, but the new Glory has only been established for three years, and the results are surprisingly "stable".

Just like studying, a student who has repeatedly scored at the top of his exams must have something to offer. Glory can be like a fish in water in today's mobile phone market,In the final analysis, I still found the "secret" to adapt to the development and change of the market,It's easy to say,But the secret is not the same"Trick",There is no "salted fish" in the same competition,If there is no hard power to do endorsement,It is impossible to lead all the way。

The so-called "opportunities are for those who are prepared", and the same is true for enterprises. With the rapid development of science and technology, whether it is the continuous investment in scientific research or the spirit of innovation, it is not a verbal self-touch, but a necessary cultivation that really determines life and death. As a mobile phone brand, Honor has always maintained a high degree of focus and sophistication in key areas such as communications, battery life, screens, glass, imaging, and AI, and more importantly, to ensure that it remains at the forefront of the industry, so that when the opportunity comes, it can not be left behind.

However, can you sit back and relax if you have the strength and preparation?

2. The explosion of AI has become a new variable that affects the changes in the market pattern

As mentioned earlier, there is no shortage of good opponents in the competition between manufacturers, and the big truth is that you know and I understand, so why there are still development differences, which means that there are new variables that affect the changes in the market pattern.

Looking at today's mobile phone circle, the biggest variable comes from the rise of new technologies, in the early years, smart phones were born, directly eliminated feature phones, and the popularization of 5G directly laid the market pattern of today's "giants". There is no doubt that new technologies and applications are quietly changing the underlying logic of the market, and for brands, staying flexible and forward-looking is the key to adapting to achieve sustainable growth.

In 2023, AI will explode, and scenarios, applications, and terminals based on AI large models will begin to emerge, and they will show a vigorous development trend at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Smartphones, as carriers of AI's advantages, have become the best targets for change. With the rise of the concept of "AI large model", domestic and foreign manufacturers have moved rapidly, and mainstream manufacturers have brought their own large models and a series of derivative applications.

According to Wang Jiping, vice president of IDC China, AI has played an important role in reaching the top of the glory this time. Especially in the performance of the high-end market, IDC data shows that Honor's market share of mobile phones above $600 in the first quarter of this year has expanded significantly, with shipments surging by 123.3% year-on-year, firmly consolidating its position as the third place in the high-end market, closely following Apple and Huawei. Wang Jiping believes that Honor has made relatively stable progress in the high-end market in the past period of time, and from the model side, Honor is relatively the fastest or faster manufacturer in the industry, and many manufacturers have promoted the concept of AI in the past, and Honor has been promoted earlier.

In fact, Honor has been deploying AI since 2016, and up to now, the cumulative investment in R&D has reached 10 billion, AI patent achievements have reached 2,100, and AI intent recognition has reached 600 categories.

At the beginning of this year, Honor released MagicOS 8.0, a full-scene operating system, which is deeply supported by the Magic Model. At the same time, thanks to the increase of AI functions, as well as the all-round upgrade of core experiences such as images and screens, the shipments of the Honor Magic6 series in the first quarter exceeded the sum of the shipments of the previous generation of products in the first two quarters, and the sales of folding screen products such as Honor Magic V2 and Honor MagicV2s that integrate platform-level AI have also skyrocketed.

It is clear that the widespread application of AI technology is bringing new variables to the smartphone market. According to IDC's forecast, it is expected that from 2024, with the widespread application of a new generation of AI technology in smartphones, a large-scale replacement boom will be triggered, and the application of these innovative technologies will not only improve the performance and experience of mobile phones, but also provide opportunities for brands to differentiate themselves.

3. Based on user needs, terminal experience wins the future

Every large-scale change in the market is essentially a profound evolution of the way of interaction, which is not only an iterative update at the technical level, but also a direct reflection of user needs and experience upgrades. Therefore, in the fierce competitive environment, the final terminal experience is the decisive factor that determines whether the brand can stand out and continue to lead.

In the past three years, HONOR has been focusing on and deeply cultivating the actual needs of consumers, and has successfully launched a series of groundbreaking technical solutions such as Hongyan Satellite Communication, Qinghai Lake Battery, Oasis Eye Protection Screen, Giant Rhino Glass, Eagle Eye Camera, etc., which have made significant technological breakthroughs and have been recognized by a large number of users.

And in the field of AI, Honor also has its own set of ideas.

Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said more than once: "Mobile phone AI is not equal to AI mobile phone. He believes that "AI mobile phones mean using AI to reconstruct and enable mobile phone applications and operating systems, as well as all aspects of consumer experience and business logic. ”

Targeting user needs is the most distinctive feature of the HONOR AI mobile phone, which is not just a simple function overlay, but aims to become an intelligent butler that can deeply learn user behavior, predict user needs, and actively provide personalized services.

On the Honor Magic6 series, it is equipped with Honor's self-developed 7 billion parameter end-side AI large model "Magic Model", based on the excellent learning ability of platform-level AI and magic large model, to build a perception middle platform, and realize the arbitrary door function that can be "one press and one drag, service direct" between various applications, which is based on human-computer interaction with intent, and provides more intelligent interactive services by sensing user needs.

For example, when you and your friends make an appointment to meet at a location, you can directly copy and drag the text address in WeChat to the taxi software in the sidebar, and the system will quickly place an order according to the user's travel needs;

Or when you wander around Xiaohongshu and occasionally see a good-looking dress, you can also drag the photo to the e-commerce app in the sidebar to quickly compare prices and place an order immediately.

In addition, based on the semantic understanding ability of the large model, the system will automatically edit it for you with just one sentence description, and the "Dynamic Capsule" can easily grasp the dynamic information of the current task in real time on the mobile phone screen, for example, when you take a taxi online, the Dynamic Capsule will update the vehicle status in real time, without opening the app frequently. It can be seen that through system-level integration, AI can be more closely integrated with the functions and services of mobile phones, so as to achieve fundamental optimization and reconstruction of user interaction experience.

At last:

In the past three years, HONOR has continued to make innovative breakthroughs around the real needs of consumers, such as Hongyan Satellite Communication, Qinghai Lake Battery, Oasis Eye Protection Screen, Giant Rhino Glass, Eagle Eye Camera and other pioneering technical solutions, and has made breakthroughs in communication, battery life, screen, glass, imaging and other fields, bringing new "shining points" to the "micro-innovation" smartphone market. In the face of the magnificent AI era, HONOR unswervingly uses AI to enable the entire business strategy and comprehensively lays out a four-layer AI strategy, which will undoubtedly inject new vitality into the development of AI mobile phones and lead a new round of terminal innovation cycle.

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