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On the afternoon of April 30, Huawei released an internal personnel adjustment document, announcing that Yu Chengdong would step down as CEO of Huawei's Device BG. He Gang, former COO of Huawei Device BG, took over as CEO of Huawei Device BG. According to people familiar with the matter, the adjustment to the normal management appointment is to allow Yu Chengdong to have more energy to create high-quality products for consumers. Other than the above-mentioned personnel changes, there is no further information in this document.
Yu Chengdong has extensive experience and outstanding performance at Huawei. Since joining Huawei in 1993, he has held a number of key positions, including 3G Product Director, Vice President of Wireless Product Marketing, President of Wireless Product Line, President of Europe Region, and President of Strategy & Marketing. He has been the CEO of Huawei Device Company for nearly 13 years since 2011.
In 2023, Yu Chengdong's Huawei terminal and automotive businesses performed well. For the full year, Huawei's global sales revenue reached 704.2 billion yuan and net profit reached 87 billion yuan. The performance of the mid-terminal business was in line with expectations, and the intelligent vehicle solution business has also begun to enter the stage of large-scale delivery. At the press conference of the new M5, Yu Chengdong revealed that from January 1 to April 22 this year, the cumulative sales of the whole series reached 105,000 units, becoming the first new force.
According to a Counterpoint report, Huawei will have a 5% high-end market share in the global high-end smartphone market of more than or equal to US$600 (about 4,343 yuan) in 2023.
Entering 2024, Huawei's device business will continue to maintain a strong growth momentum. Especially in the first quarter, sales of the Mate 60 series of 5G-enabled mobile phones were booming, and Huawei stood out among all mobile phone brand manufacturers, with a year-on-year increase of 69.7%. According to the latest report released by Canalys, the smartphone market in Chinese mainland will recover for the first time in two years in the first quarter of 2024, with shipments unchanged from the same period last year, reaching 67.7 million units. Among them, Huawei relied on the enthusiastic market response of the Mate and nova series, with shipments of 11.7 million units and a market share of 17%, regaining the first place in the Chinese mainland market.
At present, the mainland smartphone market is showing a trend of steady recovery and diversified development. The competition among leading manufacturers has intensified, innovative products such as folding screen mobile phones have continued to grow, and the new generation of AI mobile phones has also shown strong growth potential. Against the backdrop of increasingly cautious consumer demand, the smartphone industry needs more innovations and breakthroughs to attract consumers to switch phones and continue the good trend in the market. Huawei, Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers have launched new smartphones to meet the diverse needs of consumers by improving performance and optimizing user experience.
Competing factions in China's smartphone industry
Since 1983, the development of China's mobile phone industry has gone through three stages of development: function-driven market, performance-driven market and intelligence-driven market. So far, China has become one of the largest smartphone markets in the world. In the long-term development and evolution of the smartphone market, the competition pattern of China's mobile phone market at this stage has gradually formed, that is, the domestic mobile phone camp represented by Huawei, Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO and vivo and the foreign mobile phone brand camp represented by Apple and Samsung.
In the past two years, the share of high-end mobile phones in China has grown rapidly
Another notable feature of China's smartphone market is the significant growth in the share of sales in the mid-to-high-end segment (price range of $250-$399). According to the latest report from market research firm Counterpoint, in the first quarter of 2022, smartphone sales in this price range increased by nearly 10 percentage points year-on-year, accounting for 25.5% of total sales, a significant increase from 16.9% two years ago. Driven by this trend, major domestic smartphone brands have increased the number of models in this price range, aiming to meet the growing mid-to-high-end demand in the market.
In 2021, the number of mobile phone ownership per 100 people reached a new high
From 2010 to 2021, the number of mobile phones per 100 people in China showed an overall growth trend, but the growth rate showed obvious signs of slowing down. In 2021, the indicator hit a new high of 116.3, that is, China has 116.3 mobile phones per 100 people.
According to the latest data from Canalys, the global smartphone market achieved a 10% year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2024, with shipments reaching 296.2 million units, and the market performance exceeded expectations. This marks the first double-digit growth in the global smartphone market after a decade of downturn. This growth momentum was mainly attributed to the launch of new product portfolios by major smartphone manufacturers, as well as the stabilization of the macroeconomic environment in emerging markets, which contributed to the market recovery.
Zhang Xiaorong, President of Deepin Technology Research Institute, said that if the Pura 70 series can meet or even exceed consumers' expectations in terms of user experience and performance, then it will be very possible to continue the hot sales momentum of the Mate 60 series.
Industry analysts are optimistic about Huawei's prospects. TechInsights predicts that Huawei will ship more than 50 million smartphones in China in 2024, and its market share will increase significantly from 12% in 2023 to 19% in 2024. This forecast is further proof of Huawei's competitiveness and market position in the smartphone market.
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