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produced by phoenix technology's "new vision"

author | tang chen

editor | liu yukun

the publicity for huawei’s tri-fold phone is overwhelming.

this is a message tang chen saw in a social network that has little to do with technology and digital products before huawei's extraordinary brand ceremony and hongmeng intelligent driving new product launch conference. at this time, huawei's first folding screen product under the extraordinary master brand and the world's first commercial three-folding mobile phone, huawei mate xt extraordinary master, has been officially released.

it should be added that "extraordinary master" is huawei's new ultra-high-end brand, which means paying tribute to the "extraordinary master" of this era with the ultimate product. at huawei's autumn full-scenario new product launch conference in 2023, huawei announced the ultra-high-end brand extraordinary master for the first time and brought the brand's first mobile phone - huawei mate60rs extraordinary master, with a starting price of 11,999 yuan. andy lau became the brand's first brand ambassador.

on september 3, huawei officially announced the new member of the extraordinary master brand - mate xt. richard yu, huawei's executive director, chairman of the terminal bg, and chairman of the intelligent automotive solutions bu, forwarded the message. from the small corner mark, we can see that richard yu's message was sent from mate xt extraordinary master.

previously, when officially announcing the release time of huawei mate xt, yu chengdong said that this is huawei's most leading, innovative and disruptive product, a groundbreaking product that others have thought of but cannot do, and huawei's pinnacle product. "after 5 years of persistence and investment, we have turned science fiction into reality."

earlier in august, yu chengdong was photographed using a triple-folding screen phone on an airplane. when fully unfolded, the inner screen is much larger than that of an ordinary large folding phone. yu chengdong also revealed in dong yuhui's live broadcast room, "the next generation of folding screens is something that others can think of, but they can't make. we have been thinking about it for five years, and it may finally be coming out."

but huawei did not clarify this information at the time, leaving enough suspense, which led to speculation in the industry that huawei's first tri-fold phone might be under the nova brand.

"electronic moutai" is popular before it is released. it is so popular

huawei mate xt is a typical example of "before it is released, it is popular". before the official release, the relevant product information was decrypted by the industry and was basically close to the real machine. for example, its appearance uses a unique lens texture and a highly recognizable small gold logo; the folding scheme adopts a "z" shape design: a combination of outer folding + inner folding. in terms of color matching, it provides two colors: ruihong and xuanhei, and two storage specifications are available: 16gb+512gb and 16gb+1tb.

the tri-fold design in particular makes many people feel familiar. some people even joked that in the future, the mobile phone users will be divided into two groups: workers use iphones, and bosses use huawei tri-fold phones, and reading reports is like reviewing memorials.

as the saying goes, things are precious because they are rare. as the world's first commercially available tri-fold mobile phone, huawei mate xt is known as the "electronic moutai" and "financial management product". so, how popular is huawei's tri-fold phone?

according to huawei's official schedule, pre-orders will start at 12:08 on september 7, the official release will be on september 10, the pre-order will end at 23:59 on september 19, and the official sale will start at 10:08 on september 20. after the pre-order information was released, both online and offline channels were in a state of frenzy. although the official price has not yet been announced, as of 19:00 on september 9, the number of reservations on huawei's online mall has exceeded 3.08 million.

huawei terminal bg cto li xiaolong said: "the sales volume has almost exceeded 2 million in less than 24 hours. are there really so many people who want to buy the mate xt?" in addition, many netizens posted photos of consumers queuing up to place orders at huawei's offline stores, and each person was only allowed to reserve one unit, which has not been seen in many years.

according to outside predictions, the price of the mate xt is expected to be around 20,000 yuan, referring to the starting price of the mate x5 (12,999 yuan). however, as market demand is released and user sentiment ferments, scalpers may speculate it to 100,000 yuan per unit after it goes on the market. for example, on some second-hand trading platforms, it has been speculated to nearly 70,000 yuan, and as many as hundreds of people have placed orders, and the number of orders is still increasing.

on second-hand trading platforms such as xianyu and zhuanzhuan, there are already a large number of proxy auctions, and the price of proxy auctions is generally around 1,000-3,000 yuan. some merchants revealed that the actual selling price will be based on the market premium after the release.

in fact, this is not the first time that huawei's foldable screen mobile phone has become the "electronic moutai". in 2019, when huawei's first foldable screen mobile phone matex was released, the price started at 16,999 yuan, but it was also driven up to a sky-high price of about 100,000 yuan in the second-hand market. this kind of situation can only be compared with the early iphone.

on september 10, richard yu officially unveiled the huawei mate xt. it is the world's largest and thinnest folding screen phone: when unfolded, it is a 10.2-inch large screen, suitable for document reading, more like a tablet. at the same time, the phone is as thin as 3.6 mm. this may violate the advertising law, and the real data is also true. when the matching folding keyboard came out, the saying of "putting the computer in your pocket" made the audience excited. richard yu said that huawei's three-fold rewrites the history of the industry, breaks the boundaries of smart terminal forms, and turns science fiction into reality.

finally, the price was announced: 256gb version priced at 19999 yuan, 512gb version priced at 21999 yuan, 1tb version priced at 23999 yuan, and officially went on sale at 10:08 on september 20. this is about the same as expected, and not much more than that, which is actually a surprise.after the release of the iphone 16 series, more pressure and expectations were also transmitted to huawei phones. being chased by the market and consumers is also a spillover of huawei's brand and product value.

at this moment, the boat has passed through thousands of mountains.

"i don't understand the world of rich people. it seems that i am the only one whose consumption has been downgraded." another consumer commented to the media that he paid a high price for huawei's three-fold mobile phone. in fact, this is not a simple consumption upgrade or downgrade. it is the result of the combined effect of multiple factors. in tang chen's opinion, there are at least three reasons:

first of all, huawei is making a move in a snail shell and is the first in the industry to launch a three-fold mobile phone, which is a rare product micro-innovation. over the years, the mobile phone industry has been involuted to the extreme, but product innovation has become increasingly weak. among them, the most complained about brand may be apple, whose market strategy is also called "toothpaste-squeezing innovation." musk once criticized this, "i don't know what's different about the current iphone from the previous one. maybe the camera is 10% better?" at this iphone 16 series launch conference, a large wave of new jokes are already on the way.

huawei's tri-fold has achieved a new attempt at foldable screen mobile phones in terms of product form, and its differentiated advantages are obvious. although many industry insiders have commented that the screen, hinge processing technology, service life, yield rate and high price of this phone will greatly affect its sales, huawei's adaptation of the software system, battery life, phone size and thinness have all achieved the best foldable screen mobile phones at present. after picking on huawei's tri-fold, li nan, a former meizu executive, couldn't help but say "but". he said, "of course, we must admit that no one dares to mass-produce (the tri-fold) and put it on the market." there is also a hidden meaning in his words: it all depends on the comparison of peers.

secondly, foldable screen mobile phones have been on the market for 5 years. huawei and its competitors have done a good job in market education, and user awareness is high. take huawei as an example. as a domestic mobile phone manufacturer that entered the foldable screen mobile phone market earlier, huawei launched its first 5g foldable screen mobile phone, huawei mate x, in 2019. so far, huawei has released more than 10 foldable screen mobile phones, covering large folding (horizontally folding outward, horizontally folding inward), small folding (vertically folding) and other forms. this time, the three-fold mobile phone further enriched its foldable screen mobile phone product matrix and becamehuawei is the only manufacturer that currently has three types of foldable screen products. according to iresearch data, huawei's share in the ultra-high-end market above rmb 10,000 is as high as 67%. among them, huawei mate x5 is also the only single product that has achieved shipments of over one million.

data shows that huawei's foldable screen mobile phones are currently in the leading position in both the domestic and international markets. the china foldable screen mobile phone market share report released by idc in the second quarter of 2024 shows that the top five manufacturers in the domestic foldable screen mobile phone market are huawei, vivo, honor, oppo and samsung. among them, huawei ranks first with a market share of 41.7%; in the global foldable screen market, data released by techinsights shows that in the first quarter of this year, huawei's foldable screen mobile phone sales soared 257%, surpassing samsung for the first time; in the second quarter of this year, huawei continued to lead the global foldable screen smartphone market, followed by samsung and vivo.

third, huawei has "top-notch output" in marketing. some netizens commented that the international top star yang mi + mesozoic actor yu hewei + "still too comprehensive" national table tennis genius all-around player xu xin + fan deng, founder of fan deng reading club + cctv well-known host nigmat, huawei's three-fold phone fully covers high-end business people from all walks of life, "huawei's choice of extraordinary witnesses this time is quite wise."

in addition, media reported that on september 7, netizens encountered meng wanzhou at andy lau's concert. during the interaction of "seventeen years old", fans gave andy lau a heart, and the big screen captured meng wanzhou's participation. the "heart interaction" between the two also became a hot search. of course, huawei has another top star who is on par with lei jun - richard yu. with these multiple rounds of exposure, it is hard for huawei's three-fold foldable phone not to be popular.

it is worth mentioning that according to statistics released by counterpoint, in the first quarter of 2024, huawei's hongmeng harmonyos will have a global market share of 4%; its market share in china will rise from 8% in the first quarter of 2023 to 17% in the first quarter of 2024, while ios's share will drop from 20% to 16%. at the same time, the 5g penetration rate of hongmeng operating system will rise from 9% in the first quarter of 2023 to 50%.

this also means that huawei's hongmeng harmonyos surpassed apple's ios for the first time in the chinese market and became the second largest operating system in china. the domestic mobile phone operating system "android-ios-harmonyos" has become a three-legged tripod. the report also pointed out that the growth of hongmeng's operating system market share is due to the hot sales of huawei's flagship products. huawei's efforts in localizing the supply chain have provided broad space for the market prospects of hongmeng's operating system.

wang chenglu, the "father of harmonyos" and former president of huawei's consumer bg software department, said in 2021 that "16% is the watershed, and the ecosystem beyond that is basically complete." it can be seen that for the harmonyos system, it has crossed the line between life and death and is about to rush towards the next goal, which is pure-blooded harmonyos and the new harmonyos ecosystem established on it.

at the 2023 huawei developer conference, yu chengdong shouted the slogan "the boat has passed through thousands of mountains", and the industry understood the meaning and weight of his words: the progress of the hongmeng operating system has exceeded expectations, and huawei has passed the most difficult moments and survived successfully.

a year later, on august 29, huawei released its operating results for the first half of 2024 on its official website. in the first half of the year, the company achieved sales revenue of rmb 417.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.3%, and a net profit margin of 13.2%. comparing year by year, huawei's financial situation has basically returned to 2019 before the sanctions.

at this moment, with the popularity of huawei's tri-fold phones, harmonyos becoming one of the "new three strongest" operating systems, and its impressive financial situation, etc., huawei may be able to truly "pass through thousands of mountains" with these multiple favorable factors.if we make a slightly more conjectural argument, the significance of huawei's "triple" foldable smartphone is more than just a "pinnacle product," it is also a signal that huawei is getting back on track.

but it has to be said that huawei seems to be facing more challenges than before, especially in the consumer business. on the one hand, the advent of huawei's three-fold mobile phone has once again ignited the war in the folding screen mobile phone track. among them, zhao ming, ceo of honor, who is far away in germany, is representative. when asked what he thinks of huawei's three-fold mobile phone, he said that honor has layouts in three-fold, scroll and other technologies. although the technology is ready, the specific release time depends on the market reaction. not only that, xiaomi, transsion, and samsung are all reported to be developing or about to launch their own three-fold screen mobile phones. among them, samsung is more radical and may be developing a rollable mobile phone.

on the other hand, the penetration rate of foldable screen mobile phones is not high, and it is difficult to stir up the entire mobile phone market in a short period of time. guo tianxiang, research manager of idc china, said that the current annual shipment of foldable screen mobile phones in the chinese market is only 10 million, and the annual market size is 280 million. for a category that has been developed for 5 years, this penetration rate is still very low. and due to high technical requirements, low yield rate, high price, and few participants, it is difficult for tri-fold mobile phones to become the main growth point. in fact, many manufacturers are in a conservative attitude towards the foldable screen market next year. for example, oppo once gave up the update of foldable screen mobile phones.

in addition, huawei's consumer business is fighting another battle in the new energy vehicle track. a relatively good signal is that by the first half of 2024, huawei's automotive bu's revenue soared to 10.435 billion, and achieved a net profit of 2.231 billion, with a net profit margin of 21.38%, reversing the huge losses in the past two years. let yu chengdong's "only loss-making business" become a thing of the past.

for huawei, these competitions are what it must go through in order to survive and live better.along the way, huawei has gone from the "deep waters" of technological innovation to the "no man's land", becoming a leader in the smartphone industry and exploring a path to high-end smartphones. huawei adheres to the concept of extreme productism and will work with the "extraordinary masters" who lead the times to explore more possibilities.ren zhengfei once said, "as long as we can survive, we are the winners." this is also the greatest significance of the huawei brand to the current chinese technology brands.