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At present, the smartphone market is saturated, the market is fiercely competitive, and innovation has become the key. With the increasing diversification and maturity of user needs, traditional functions and designs can no longer meet the needs of consumers. Therefore, smartphone manufacturers must step up innovation and launch more attractive products to attract consumers. AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology is widely used by smartphone manufacturers, including voice assistants, smart cameras, facial recognition and other functions, to bring users a smarter and more convenient experience. Therefore, smartphone manufacturers must continue to innovate in AI technology to meet the growing needs of users, improve competitiveness, and win market share.
Recently, Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, was asked in an interview: Everyone has been complaining that Apple has not innovated since Cook took office, and AI will be the biggest innovation after he came to power. Regarding this question, Zhao Ming replied that the leading point of the industry should be seen before us, and make a judgment and lead the industry. However, he admits that in the past few years, Apple has not seen a particularly huge breakthrough in innovation.
Zhao Ming mentioned that in the Jobs era, Apple led the development of the entire technology industry with its outstanding innovation capabilities. However, since Cook took over as CEO, at least in the last few years, Apple has not seen a huge innovation in this area. Of course, you said that he made VR, Vision Pro, this is not particularly unique, an eye tracking, eye control, objectively speaking, the technology is not the first application of Apple.
At the same time, Zhao Ming said that compared with Apple and Huawei, we are definitely far behind in terms of resources and accumulation thickness, after all, these two companies have so many years of accumulation. But you will find that it is precisely because of the short history of glory that we regard ourselves as a start-up company, maintain an entrepreneurial mentality, do not set boundaries for our own innovation, adhere to our own value proposition to move forward, and do not carry burdens, which is precisely the glory of traveling lightly, which I think is a great honor.
According to the latest data released by IDC, an international data company, in the first quarter of 2024, Honor won the first place in China's smartphone market with a market share of 17.1%, with a year-on-year increase of 13.2%.
Zhao Ming further pointed out that although Apple has not seen great innovation in recent years, this does not mean that Apple has lost its ability to innovate. On the contrary, he believes that AI may be Apple's biggest innovation direction since Cook took office. With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, Apple has the opportunity to achieve breakthroughs in the field of AI, thus leading the development of the entire industry again.
Looking back at the development of the smartphone industry:
-- Smartphone shipments rebounded
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's mobile phone shipments will resume growth in 2023, reaching 289 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. Among them, 5G mobile phone shipments were 240 million units, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%, accounting for 82.8% of mobile phone shipments in the same period.
In terms of smartphone shipments, China's smartphone shipments as a whole showed a trend of first growth and then decline from 2012 to 2023, with smartphone shipments declining for two consecutive years from 2021 to 2022, and rebounding to 276 million units in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%.
-- The market share of smartphone manufacturers
IDC statistics show that the top five smartphone manufacturers in China's smartphone market shipments in 2023 are Apple, Honor, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi, with market shares of 17.3%, 17.1%, 16.7%, 16.5% and 13.2% respectively.
Xu Jingquan, senior deputy general manager of MediaTek and general manager of the wireless communication division, said that generative AI mobile phones will be the next form of smartphone evolution, and the mobile ecosystem is ushering in far more innovative opportunities than in the past.
According to the "Generative AI Mobile Phone Industry White Paper" jointly released by MediaTek and Counterpoint, mobile phone manufacturers' exploration in the field of generative AI will run throughout the year, and Counterpoint believes that 2024 will be the first year of generative AI mobile phones. The white paper mentions that generative AI phones have opened a new cycle of smartphone development, and in the long run, smartphones will develop into mobile agents. According to Counterpoint, generative AI phones are expected to reach a penetration rate of around 43% by 2027. At the same time, the stock of generative AI phones will grow from only one million units in 2023 to 1.23 billion units in 2027.
Prospective Economist APP Information Group
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