Huawei regained the Chinese mainland market and led a new era of domestic mobile phones
In the quarter of 2024, in the Chinese mainland smartphone market, a change that shocked the industry is unfolding. After 13 quarters of trough, Huawei regained its leading position in the domestic market with its excellent product strength and marketing strategy, with shipments of 11.7 million units and a market share of 17%, surpassing brands such as Apple and vivo in one fell swoop and regaining the Chinese mainland market. This achievement not only marks the strong return of Huawei's mobile phone business, but also indicates that domestic mobile phone brands are opening a new era.
Huawei's ability to pull off such an amazing turnaround in a short period of time is largely due to the hot sales of its flagship product line, the Mate and nova series. As Huawei's annual flagship, the Mate 60 series has won wide acclaim from consumers for its excellent imaging system, powerful chip performance, and stylish design. The nova series targets young users, and has successfully attracted a large number of young consumers through the front-facing high-pixel selfie camera and trendy and fashionable body design. The joint efforts of the two product lines have allowed Huawei to regain its dominant position in the mid-to-high-end market.
In addition to its excellent product strength, Huawei's marketing strategy is also remarkable. On the one hand, Huawei has stepped up its efforts to build offline experience stores to allow consumers to experience the excellent performance of flagship models in person, and on the other hand, Huawei has also hyped up its online channels and used new marketing methods such as social media and live streaming to reach a wider audience. Huawei has perfectly combined online and offline marketing to achieve all-round brand exposure and user coverage.
With the recovery of the mobile phone business, Huawei's overall performance in the 2024 quarter has also seen a significant increase. According to the data, Huawei's operating income in the first quarter was about 178.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.66%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was about 19.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 564%, and the daily net profit exceeded 200 million yuan. Such impressive performance growth is largely due to the hot sales of Huawei's high-end models, the Pura 70 series. After the release of the Pura 70 Ultra and Pura 70 Pro, the phenomenon of short supply once caused Huawei's official website to be paralyzed, which is enough to show the degree of consumer desire for Huawei's high-end flagship.
Huawei's comeback has changed the landscape of the high-end market. Apple's sales in China fell 19.1% year-on-year in the first quarter, the worst performance in China since 2020, due to Huawei's significant increase in the high-end market share of more than $600. This reflects from the side that Huawei has not only regained the trust of domestic consumers, but also successfully squeezed Apple's share in the high-end market. For a brand that has been almost completely marginalized, Huawei's counterattack can be described as swift and powerful.
How did Huawei regain the trust of consumers in just a few quarters? From a product and marketing perspective, Huawei has undoubtedly done its homework. However, Huawei did not give up self-innovation during the trough period, but carried out all-round transformation and upgrading around the needs of users.
On the one hand, Huawei has increased its investment in cutting-edge technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence to ensure the top performance of its flagship models, and on the other hand, Huawei has also made great efforts in terms of user experience, continuously optimizing system smoothness and camera algorithms to bring users the ultimate experience. Huawei has fundamentally reshaped its brand image, allowing consumers to see a new Huawei that is completely different from the past and focuses on innovation and user experience.
Huawei's fight back has not been easy. At the trough of sanctions, Huawei had to temporarily abandon Google's mobile services and focus on its own operating system and ecosystem construction. Although it once made users suspicious of Huawei, Huawei finally won back the trust of consumers through unremitting efforts. This tenacious spirit of hard work is the core value of the Huawei brand.
Huawei's recapture of the Chinese mainland market in the 2024 quarter marks the beginning of a new era for domestic mobile phone brands. Through excellent product capabilities, precise marketing strategies, and continuous self-innovation, Huawei has successfully rebuilt its brand image, won back the trust of consumers, and re-established its leading position in the domestic market. This is not only Huawei's own victory, but also indicates that domestic mobile phone brands are moving to a higher level and beginning to truly compete with international giants. I believe that in the near future, we will definitely see the rise of more domestic brands and bring more and better choices to consumers.