The iPhone 15 arrives in the "Huawei whirlwind", and these upgrades will bring a wave of replacements
The iPhone 15 series is a major upgrade
Design change
The most striking design change in the iPhone 15 series is the adoption of the "Dynamic Island" design, which replaces the notch design that has been used for years. The so-called "Dynamic Island" refers to the integration of sensor modules such as the front camera and Face ID in a long "island" area to make the screen look more complete. This design was first applied to the Huawei Mate 40 series, and was later widely adopted by Samsung, Xiaomi and other manufacturers. Apple's addition to the "Dynamic Island" camp not only gives the iPhone 15 a greater visual impact, but also leaves room for more innovative interaction methods in the future.
In addition to the "Dynamic Island" design, the iPhone 15 series also features a titanium middle frame and narrow bezel design, which makes the body lighter and feels better. This design concept coincides with the "hypercurved" design of the Huawei Mate 60 series, which is designed to bring users a better integrated visual experience.
Camera upgrades
Photography and videography have always been one of the core selling points of the iPhone series. The iPhone 15's camera upgrades are mainly reflected in the pixel enhancement of the main camera and the addition of a telephoto lens. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus' main camera pixels have been boosted to 64 million from 48 million previously; The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, on the other hand, feature an industry-leading 48-megapixel main camera and feature a 6x periscope telephoto lens on the Pro Max models, which is expected to further improve zoom and telephoto capabilities.
The main camera of the Huawei Mate 60 series is a whopping 64 million pixels and comes with a 10x periscope telephoto lens. Although the iPhone 15 has been upgraded in terms of cameras, there is still a certain gap compared to Huawei's flagship.
Interface conversion
For years, Apple has insisted on using the patented Lightning interface as a data transfer and charging interface, but with the iPhone 15 series, Apple has finally moved closer to the industry-standard USB-C port. All iPhone 15 models will use USB-C interface, and the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max support the USB 3.2 transfer protocol, with a theoretical transfer speed of up to 10Gbps, which greatly improves data transfer efficiency.
The wide application of the USB-C interface will bring a better user experience to iPhone users. They no longer need to worry about compatibility issues with peripheral accessories such as data cables and chargers, and they can also enjoy faster data transfer speeds. It is worth noting that the Huawei Mate 60 series has taken the lead in adopting the USB 4.0 interface at the beginning of this year, with a transfer speed of 40Gbps, which is still ahead of the iPhone 15 in this regard.
Chip performance improvement
Chip strength has always been the most praised part of the iPhone series. The iPhone 15 is equipped with the A17 Bionic chip, which uses TSMC's 3nm process technology, which has greatly improved power consumption and performance compared with the A16 chip. According to Apple, the A17 chip consumes 25-30% less power, while the CPU and GPU performance are 10% and 15% higher, respectively.
This upgrade will undoubtedly bring better flight performance and application running experience to the iPhone 15 series. Compared with Huawei's Kirin 9200 chip, the A17 chip may still have a gap in AI computing power. The Kirin 9200 uses a 5nm process technology and has a built-in Da Vinci NPU independently developed by Huawei, which has natural advantages in AI computing.
The material of the fuselage has been improved
The iPhone 15 series also has some minor improvements in terms of body materials. Apple says that the new iPhone will feature a titanium middle frame and a ceramicized glass back case, making it thinner and stronger. This coincides with the "nano crystalline ceramic" body design concept adopted by the Huawei Mate 60 series, all in pursuit of thinness and lightness to ensure the durability of the mobile phone.
Will it bring a wave of replacements?
The iPhone 15 series undoubtedly brings a lot of upgrades to users, but whether these upgrades are enough to trigger a wave of large-scale replacement is a matter of disagreement in the industry.
Supporting the point
Those who support the view believe that the iPhone 15 does have the potential to lead the wave of replacement. Their main ones include:
The iPhone 15 has been greatly improved in many aspects such as design language, camera capabilities, chip performance, etc., which will bring users a new experience, which will surely attract a large number of fruit fans to replace their phones.
The strong competition of the Huawei Mate 60 series will undoubtedly further stimulate the replacement demand of Apple users. Users are likely to abandon their existing iPhones and buy the iPhone 15 in favor of a better experience.
With the continuous coverage of 5G networks and the continuous enrichment of applications, users will have higher and higher requirements for mobile phone performance and experience, which will force them to upgrade.
Opposing views
However, there are also many people who are skeptical that the iPhone 15 can trigger a wave of large-scale replacements, and their main reasons are:
Although the iPhone 15 has been upgraded in many aspects, the upgrade is not too large, and it is difficult to bring users enough "amazing" experience, and the demand for replacement is insufficient.
The price of the iPhone 15 is still very high, and for most users, the replacement cost is too high, and it is difficult to trigger a large-scale replacement wave in the short term.
The smartphone industry has entered the era of stock, and the frequency of user replacement has declined overall, and it is difficult for the iPhone 15 to substantially change this trend.
Market expectations
In the second half of the year, industry insiders generally expect that the domestic mobile phone market will usher in a certain degree of recovery, but the recovery will be limited. Specifically:
Pick up in the second half of the year
The recovery of the mobile phone market is mainly supported by the following factors:
As the impact of the epidemic weakens, offline physical stores will gradually return to normal, which will bring a certain boost to mobile phone sales.
The second half of the year is the peak season for traditional mobile phones, and Apple, Huawei, Samsung and other manufacturers will launch new products on land, which will further stimulate consumer demand.
Some regions in China have begun to issue subsidies for 5G mobile phones, which will help promote the replacement of mobile phones.
The range is limited
Despite this, the recovery of the mobile phone market in the second half of the year is expected to be relatively limited, mainly due to:
The macroeconomic situation remains severe, with sluggish growth in consumer disposable incomes and pent-up demand for consumer discretionary goods such as mobile phones.
Competition in the smartphone industry has intensified, and manufacturers' profit margins have been squeezed, making it difficult to launch attractive preferential policies.
The penetration rate of 5G mobile phones is already relatively high, and the demand for replacement in the stock market is limited.
The iPhone 15 does bring users a multi-faceted upgrade experience, but whether it can successfully trigger a large-scale replacement wave depends on its actual sales performance. Industry insiders generally expect that the domestic mobile phone market will usher in a recovery in the second half of this year, but the extent is limited. The performance of the iPhone 15 series will be one of the focuses of the mobile phone industry.