news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

“ the smartphone market has gone from a red ocean to a bloody ocean. the giants in the market will strive to seize every amazing selling point and then magnify it countless times to show it to the outside world. ”

text/ ba jiuling (wechat public account: wu xiaobo channel)

extraordinary master

at 2:30 pm on september 10th, beijing time, huawei held this year's autumn full-scenario press conference with the theme of "extraordinary works, highlights at all times". at the press conference, yu chengdong announced the launch of new products - matext extraordinary master three-fold mobile phone, wenjie m9, zhijie r7 and other cars.

due to the grand scale of this press conference, editors from various media had already brought their own stools to observe and evaluate the event.

the most popular product was the tri-fold phone that was hyped up online a few days ago. however, in this two-and-a-half-hour press conference, yu chengdong only spent half an hour introducing it.

in some previous promotional videos and new product launches, "utg glass and non-newtonian fluid" and "powerful hinge system" may have caused some visual fatigue. after seeing so much craftsmanship, people still can't wait to see the real thing and the price.

at the press conference, yu chengdong said that the function of the three-fold screen is "one machine for multiple uses". when it is not folded, it is a mini pc with a foldable keyboard and mouse. when it is folded once, it becomes a small-screen tablet. when it is fully folded, it becomes a straight-screen mobile phone. in some evaluation programs, the folding and scene use are still quite "smooth".

yu chengdong introduces the three-fold mobile phone at huawei's new product launch conference

to sum up, just fold it like this, fold it like this, look at it like this, look at it like this.

the most surprising thing is the thickness: the xt with a three-fold screen is only slightly thicker than huawei's double-fold screen matex5.

of course, once the actual product came out, the editorial department had mixed reviews.

some people think it is ugly, and joke that the three-fold phone has opened up the "screen" track for mobile phones, and in the future you can take out a 65-inch lcd tv from your pocket. but others say that the black gold waistline with the dark rock texture is low-key, steady and meaningful, and accurately hits the patriotic and wealthy middle-aged uncle.

in this era when the appearance of mobile phones tends to be the same, owning a unique three-fold screen huawei master is naturally a "status symbol". the most powerful response to the complaints about the screen is: the three-fold screen looks like the emperor reading memorials, which perfectly meets the needs of big bosses who are busy with all kinds of things.

as the debate raged, yu chengdong announced the price at the press conference - starting at 19,999 yuan and the top configuration at 23,999 yuan. this set of numbers immediately silenced the editorial department.

"it's really an extraordinary positioning and an extraordinary price," an editor said in the group.

whether you like it or not is one thing, who will buy it is another.

Apple in AI

huawei's extraordinary masters and attractive prices instantly found a benchmark.

just over 10 hours ago, apple also held its annual autumn new product launch conference, and its next money-making machine, the iphone 16, made its debut.

this is also a spoiler of too many press conferences and new products in advance. consumers familiar with apple have a secret formula "buy even numbers, not odd numbers", which means that even-numbered models are often equipped with newer ideas and designs, while odd-numbered models are improvements based on even numbers.

this time, the iphone 16 has added a new “camera control” function, and the lens has also been changed to a vertical arrangement (a change that most people won’t care about).

california, usa

apple holds 2024 fall new product launch conference

but this time, apple’s own selling point is not that it is “again” equipped with a new camera or a new camera button, but that everything is for ai.

at this press conference which was high-profile named "highlight moment", the audience was repeatedly indoctrinated with only two words - apple intelligence, apple's artificial intelligence.

cook said frankly: the new generation of iphone is built from the ground up for apple intelligence.

for example, in the demonstration, although it was still taking pictures, we could repeatedly see the interaction between the demonstrator and ai in the promotional video.

they take their iphones and click around, and every time they click, a different artificial intelligence assistant appears, which could be siri or chatgpt.

to sum up, for ordinary people, just shoot like this, ask ai, shoot like this, ask ai, shoot like this, ask ai.

the interaction between the presenter and ai in the promotional video

ai is a framework, and anything can be put into it.

for chinese users, many of the above experiences have actually been launched by domestic app and mobile phone manufacturers a long time ago, but it seems that they have been integrated into one function by apple for comprehensive use.

putting aside other complex and professional technical parameters, this is all that ordinary people see about the iphone 16.

market response

huawei's "highlight moment" and apple's "highlight moment" are at the same time and have highly similar themes, which have caused a huge stir.

for a long time, in order to avoid apple's edge, major mobile phone manufacturers have basically scheduled the release of their flagship phones in the first half of the year, while huawei usually releases its flagship phones in october and november after apple's press conference. the only exception was ten years ago, when huawei mate7 and iphone6 ​​"collided" in september, which was interpreted as a timely release during the berlin international consumer electronics show.

therefore, this "competition on the same stage" between huawei and apple is rare.

huawei releases the world's first triple-folding screen mobile phone

citizens from all over the country come to the store to experience

as a result, "who is sniping whom?", "huawei vs apple", and similar interpretations and headlines are dizzying, and the two are naturally put under the magnifying glass of the media for careful comparison and examination.

capital is often the fastest to respond to market enthusiasm. after the price of the iphone 16 series was announced, apple's stock price fell by 1.9% at one point, and finally closed with a small increase of 0.04%. however, the stock prices of huawei concept stocks rose with the press conference: faben information rose by 20%, chuling information rose by about 18%, changshan beiming and netda software also rose by the daily limit, and dreamnet technology, asiainfo security, tuowei information and others rose by more than 5%.

after watching the press conference, wall street analysts wrote in their report: "apple's new hardware product launch was largely in line with expectations, more evolutionary than revolutionary." "apple's adjustments to camera controls are an 'exciting consumer innovation', and stable prices are seen as 'positive' in the current uncertain consumer spending environment."

but a-shares are more like prophets. as early as huawei confirmed the time of the press conference, concept stocks related to huawei, hisilicon, and folding screens took off for many days. the most exaggerated one was shenzhen huaqiang, which has been on the daily limit since august 15, with a cumulative increase of 329%. it was not until the end of huawei's press conference that it finally showed signs of fatigue.

in terms of price, the lowest configuration of apple iphone 16 is 5999 yuan, and the top configuration is 13999 yuan, the same price as the previous generation. suddenly i saw a familiar scene: kfc and mcdonald's entered china in the 1980s and 1990s. a hamburger sold for more than ten yuan. it was once regarded as a luxury restaurant for birthdays, but the price increase has not been obvious until now. on the contrary, the prices of some chinese fast food brands that compete with foreign fast food have been rising steadily.

huawei's xt master, which is close to 20,000 yuan, naturally became the focus. not only is the starting price twice that of the iphone 16 flagship 256g version, but the popularity is also high. when the price was announced, the number of online reservations quickly exceeded 4 million.

according to counterpoint data, this number is close to 1/4 of the global foldable phone shipments in 2023. in other words, the probability of 4 million units being sold out in a short period of time is extremely small.there are many scalpers among the 4 million people rushing to buy the goods, but most of them are retail scalpers, which means that the supply of goods is not stable.

on second-hand trading platforms, the price of xt master ranges from 30,000 to 90,000 yuan, and the price basically needs to be increased by about 10,000 yuan. the price increase actually reflects the scarcity and high liquidity of the product. for example, there were two main reasons for the rush to buy huawei mate 60 last year: loyal users had not changed their phones for many years, and the user base was large; second, the kirin chip was not in stock in the early stage, and it was a highly scarce product.

in fact, in the past five years, apple and huawei have increased prices to varying degrees. specifically, apple's three models with the highest price increases are: iphone12 blue with an increase of about 1,300 to 1,500 yuan, iphone13 pro far peak blue with an increase of about 2,000 yuan, iphone15pr series with a maximum increase of 1,800 yuan, and mate60 series with an increase of more than 1,000 yuan. on huawei's side, the mate30 porsche version has an increase of 7,000 yuan, the mate50 version has an increase of 4,000 yuan, and the mate60 series has an increase of more than 1,000 yuan.

from these models, we can see that the price increase of the basic flagships of the two is actually similar. the huawei products that have been hyped outrageously are still because of their unique designs, so it comes back to the question:there is always a group of people in this market who are not short of money and are in urgent need of something that can represent their identity and be unique. in the past, it was apple, but after the appearance became homogenized, it didn’t seem so attractive anymore.

therefore, looking through the comments from major media, it is not difficult to understand why there are so many comments that "huawei does not cheat the poor."

two routes

although they are both smartphones, the competition between huawei and apple is actually no longer on the same track.

in 2024, although layoffs at major technology companies in silicon valley are no longer news, "apple layoffs" are real news.

according to the latest report from well-known apple whistleblower reporter mark gurman, apple has carried out at least four layoffs this year. in early 2024, apple cut hundreds of jobs in its closed self-driving car and microled display projects, and fired more than 100 people from the siri-related team in san diego (these employees chose not to move to texas).

not long ago, apple notified employees of its service department that the department would soon cut about 100 jobs, including engineering and software testing positions.

all the layoffs point to one thing: transformation to artificial intelligence.

there were two landmark events. in february, apple gave up its ten-year dream of making cars. in june, it reached a cooperation with openai, and the marriage between the veteran artificial intelligence voice assistant siri and the popular chatgpt was successful.

in some ways, apple is old.

after this year's launch event, people once again saw the familiar comment in the comments section: "i still can't forget the surprise that iphone 4 brought me."

and this was twelve years ago.

most of apple's senior management team have served for more than 10 or even 20 years, with the longest tenure being 38 years, which basically means their careers end there. including ceo cook, many are about to retire.

interestingly, among the executive team, the person with the shortest tenure is john giannandrea, apple’s senior vice president of machine learning and ai strategy, who has only been with apple for six years.

in a sense, whether apple will grow old or be rejuvenated may depend on the success of its ai phones.

back to huawei, it has been 6 years since it encountered a series of sanctions and bans from european and american countries.

in the domestic market, huawei spent many years to return to the top five in market share. in the first quarter of 2024, the global market share of hongmeng operating system successfully exceeded 4%. in the chinese market, it surpassed ios for the first time and became the second largest operating system in the market.

however, the hidden pain of sanctions remains huawei's biggest constraint in the smartphone field.

some analysts told the media that huawei's procurement of advanced chips is limited, and it is difficult to compete with apple and samsung in terms of chip performance. therefore, form factor upgrades have become one of the main directions for huawei's smartphone upgrades, and it continues to focus on foldable screen phones to compete with apple in a differentiated manner.

from a market perspective, although the growth rate is fast, foldable screens are still a niche market, with shipments of only 2.57 million units in the second quarter of 2024 (71.58 million units globally). however, it happens to be the best stage for showing off one's strength.

idc data shows that in the second quarter of 2024, huawei ranked first in china's foldable screen mobile phone market with a market share of 41.7%.

in fact, many brands have also made plans for three-fold screen mobile phones, but only huawei has actually launched them on the market. on the one hand, the concept of three-fold screen mobile phones is easy to understand but difficult to mass produce. on the other hand, because of this, the cost and investment of the three-fold screen will inevitably lead to high prices, and the fragility of the product itself requires high after-sales capabilities.

taking all the above factors into consideration, companies that lack the ability to set a brand premium will not be able to impress high-end users and sell their products even if they produce.

huawei happens to meet all of the above conditions.

in addition, it seems that the press conferences "collide" on the same day, but self-media blogger zong ning told xiaoba,this huawei conference is not the launch of huawei's flagship model. therefore, it can be seen as a display of the highest product capabilities, and apple is really going to start selling products in the new year.

liu xingliang, director of the dcci internet research institute, holds a similar view. he said:

"huawei's strategy is to consolidate the domestic market, attract high-end users who are tired of the apple brand through product and timing selection, and strengthen the brand image of 'technological innovation' in the minds of consumers;

on the other hand, it will gradually recover its international market. by creating a "confrontation" with apple, it can not only further consolidate its brand influence in china and some western markets, but also pave the way for restoring its influence in the international market in the future, and show global consumers that it is still innovative and competitive. "

in other words, it is to break out of the domestic market again and look to the world again. in that familiar arena, apple and samsung still dominate, and there is also the old rival xiaomi.

in the second quarter of 2024, data from idc and counterpoint both show that samsung, apple and xiaomi have global market shares of approximately 20%, 16% and 14% respectively. according to canalys statistics, the market shares of these three manufacturers are 18%, 16% and 15% respectively.

conclusion

one is the first time in 17 years to use software innovation (ai) as a selling point to encourage consumers to change their phones, while the other is to create a "new species" through extreme hardware innovation to attract fans.

after all, the smartphone market has gone from a red ocean to a bloody ocean, and the giants in it will strive to seize every amazing selling point and then magnify it countless times to show it to the outside world.

at the end of the business war, it is a showdown between essential product power and brand power.

as ding daoshi, president of the speed ​​​​tour research institute, said: "although technology products are essentially consumer products, they are also works of art that can provide emotional value and belief value beyond product performance."

from this point of view, huawei and apple are both the strongest players at the table. this may be the most exciting selling point besides the products since the day.

the good thing is that the battle is in full swing and the outcome is yet to be decided. there are still several months of fighting to watch, which is exciting. i wish you all a happy watching.

references:

1. "i stayed up late waiting for iphone 16, and a "camera button" was released?" 36kr

2. "three foldables for 20,000 yuan! can huawei's foldable screen, a new "new species", dominate the technology circle?", shell finance

3. "pre-orders have exceeded 4 million units. who is hoarding huawei's tri-fold smartphone?", financial magazine

4. "after watching the new phone released by huawei, i feel that this is the real spring festival gala of technology", negative review by x.pin

about the author | gentle breeze and half moon | xu tao | responsibilityedit | he mengfei

editor-in-chief | he mengfei | image source | VCG