When Huawei's three folds meet Apple's AI, what "sparks" will be created?

Image source: Courtesy of the company

chose to hold a new product launch conference on the same day, and the smell of gunpowder between Huawei and Apple is getting stronger and stronger.

Beijing time9month10At one o'clock in the morning,Apple held"Highlight moment"Launch conference,At half past two in the afternoon of the same day,Huawei saw the extraordinary brand ceremony and Hongmeng Zhixing new product launch conference was officially held,The protagonist of the former is"Apple Intelligence",The protagonist of the latter is its first three-fold screen mobile phone product Huawei MateXT Extraordinary Master,The product has been opened on September 7 at 12:08,At present, Huawei Mall shows that the number of appointments has exceeded 3 million。

Leading the smartphone industry with technological innovation used to be the commonality between the two, but from the perspective of the development trajectory, Apple seems to be more and more deviating from the word innovation, from the iPhoneX series, it is difficult for Apple to hand over refreshing products, even if "Apple Intelligence", it is futures not spot. The first AI features will be available in beta next month, and will only be available in the United States, while Chinese users will not be able to experience the features until next year.

Compared with the update at the software level, the innovation of hardware is more intuitive and memorable. Triple folding screen mobile phones, even though the price is high and the use scenarios are limited, Huawei still achieves the world's first in the field of mass production of triple folding. Although the target audience of the MateXT and iPhone 16 series is not the same, Huawei may want to compete with Apple through the strength of technological innovation.

“AIiPhone”对战三折叠

AI and folding screens are already one of the few hopes for mobile phone manufacturers in the face of a weak mobile phone market. At Apple's Glowtime event, "Apple Intelligence" is a manifestation of the word "highlights", and in this year's iPhone 16 series update, Apple spent a lot of time introducing AI-related features.

In order to better adapt to "Apple Intelligence", the iPhone 16 series is equipped with the latest A18 Bionic chip using the second generation of 3nm technology, which is two generations higher than the A16 Bionic chip of the iPhone 15, equipped with a six-core CPU and a sixteen-core neural engine. In addition, Apple also said that the A18 has a new memory subsystem that allows for faster data transfer speeds. These are all to optimize its end-side AI computing power, according to Apple, the iPhone 16 computing power is 2 times higher than the previous generation.

From the perspective of specific functions, Apple mainly introduces the new experience in detail from four dimensions: communication and expression, memory reproduction, arrangement of things and priorities, and personal scenarios. For example, the writing tool is deeply integrated into iOS, and the notes written down and the tone of the boss's dialogue can be polished by AI. When recalling past photos, you can find out which photo you want in the form of a question and answer, and you can also create a video for the memory; Large sections of text in the mailbox can be directly generated to generate a summary for easy reading; In addition, Siri can understand the user's questions, provide corresponding answers, perform hundreds of in-app actions, and more.

However, the first AI features will be launched with the beta version next month, and only the United States version can be experienced, and will gradually expand to countries such as Australia in December, while users in China, Japan and other regions will not be able to experience the relevant features until next year.

Another notable change in the Apple iPhone 16 series is the addition of a "camera control key" on the side of the body, which can bring up the camera app by pressing it, use the shutter when taking a photo by clicking it, record a video by pressing and holding it, and swipe left and right to zoom and so on. Compared with the previous generation of iPhone15 series, the price of the whole series of iPhone16 products has not increased, from 5999 yuan to a maximum of 13999 yuan. The base model is available in iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models, and is available in five colors: black, white, pink, dark cyan, and ultramarine. The Pro series is still available in iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, with a body made of grade 5 titanium alloy and available in four colors: black titanium, white titanium, primary titanium, and desert titanium.

At the scene of Huawei's extraordinary brand ceremony and Hongmeng Zhixing's new product launch conference, the long-rumored triple folding screen mobile phone was finally unveiled. "Today we brought an epoch-making product that others thought of but couldn't do, after 5 years of persistence and investment, we have turned science fiction into reality, Mate XT is the world's first triple folding screen mobile phone." Yu Chengdong, Chairman of Huawei Device BG and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, said confidently at the press conference.

The "X" in the Mate XT continues the serial number of the folding screen product, and the "T" means that one is a three-fold, one is the top technology, and the other is the future trend, according to Yu Chengdong, the release of Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master will rewrite the history of the industry.

In terms of screen, the Mate XT has a single screen, dual screen, and three screens, with an unfolded screen of about 10.2 inches and a body thickness of 3.6 mm. Yu Chengdong pointed out that the breakthrough in the screen and hinge is the key to the mass production of its folding screen products. According to reports, Mate XT has three versions, the price is located at 19999 yuan-23999 yuan, there are two colors, red and dazzling black, both of which support Tiantong satellite communication. However, Yu Chengdong also said that with the reduction of costs and the improvement of yield, the price will gradually decrease.

Before Huawei released the Mate XT, the "King of Africa" Transsion mobile phone had released a three-fold concept machine PHANTOM ULTIMATE2, with a folded screen size of 6.48 inches and an average thickness of 11 mm when unfolded, but according to media reports, the product was not mass-produced; Samsung showed the form of a three-fold phone as early as CES in 2022, but did not launch related products.

In other words, Huawei has become the world's first manufacturer to mass-produce triple-fold screen mobile phones.

A stalemate tug-of-war

The choice of the same day to hold the press conference is enough to see that the smell of gunpowder between Apple and Huawei is becoming more and more intense.

Since the return of Huawei's Mate 60 series last year, Apple's position in China's high-end mobile phone market has been challenged. According to data given by market research institutions IDC and Canalys, in the second quarter of 2024, Apple has fallen out of the top five positions in China's smartphone market, while Huawei's market share has increased the fastest year-on-year.

Apple played an AI card, and Huawei caught it in a three-fold form. It's not that AI isn't important, but Huawei has already demonstrated the relevant layout of AI at the Huawei Developer Conference in June this year, Harmony OS NEXT integrates AI capabilities into the system for the first time, and Xiaoyi has been upgraded to Xiaoyi intelligent twins, which can perform more complex operations, and obtain better scene perception, intent recognition, and user understanding capabilities with the blessing of device-cloud collaboration and intent framework. When explaining the Mate XT at the press conference, Yu Chengdong also focused on the functions of AI information consultant, AI translation expert, and AI senior editor.

But in the field of folding screens, Apple has not come up with mature products so far, and Huawei has taken the lead in the folding screen. According to IDC data, in the second quarter of 2024, China's folding screen mobile phone shipments increased by 104.6% to 2.57 million units, and Huawei's market share was 41.7%, ranking first.

Although the target audience of the iPhone 16 series and Huawei Mate XT series is not completely the same, the release of the industry's first mass-produced triple folding screen mobile phone can attach more brand influence to Huawei from the perspective of technological innovation. On the other hand, Apple, after the press conference, related topics related to #Apple's color matching is ugly# rushed to the hot search on Weibo, and the toothpaste innovation was also complained about by the market. Due to the fact that its AI features will not be available in the Chinese market until next year, Chinese users will not be able to experience the biggest update of this launch event for the time being. Even Xingji Meizu even updated the poster on its Weibo to rub this hot spot, saying, "The AI of the 6000 yuan file will only be available next year; The AI of the 2000 yuan file is available right away. ”

In fact, in recent years, iPhone sales and reputation in the Chinese market have been in a declining range. For a long time after the launch of the iPhone15 series products last year, dealers did not feel the rush to buy in previous years, since last year's "double 11", the e-commerce platform took the lead in reducing prices, and then Apple's official website also began to reduce prices. According to Apple's financial report for the second quarter of 2024, iPhone product revenue was $39.296 billion, down 0.9% from the same period last year; Revenue in Greater China was $14.728 billion, down 6.5% from the same period last year, and it was the only region among Apple's five major sales regions to decline year-on-year.

The battle between Huawei and Apple has never stopped, but the Huawei triple fold is not the best product for the hard iPhone. Guo Tianxiang, research manager of IDC China, believes that "the ordinary large fold has been developed for at least 5 years, but the penetration rate is still less than 2%, and the more expensive and heavier trifold will only target a niche group in the short term, and it is more a reflection of social and brand attributes, rather than a scenario that really must be used." ”

But for Huawei, the label of leading technological innovation is perhaps more important. It is also enough to see Huawei's attention from the way the press conference is held, such as asking Andy Lau to endorse it, and opening the extraordinary brand plan in October 2024. On the other hand, Apple's latest press conference only released the latest products in the form of recording and broadcasting with the explanations of the executives, lacking a sense of live. It will take more time to test who Apple and Huawei will win in China's high-end mobile phone market in the new year.