On the night before Huawei's winter all-scenario conference on December 26, I routinely found a chat with an old friend from Huawei. Looking back on the whole year at the end of the year, it seems to be a logical thing, and while chatting, a flash of inspiration came to my mind: why not use the way I am best at to make an inventory of Huawei mobile phones in 2023?Looking back on this year, there have been too many turning points for Huawei: mobile phone products have returned to 5G, new product releases have returned to the normal rhythm, and the smart car business has ushered in a blockbuster model with single vehicle sales exceeding 100,000 units. After three years of haze, 2023 can be called a turning point for Huawei...... year
Sales returned to the top five
Last week, BCI released weekly sales data for the first 50 weeks of 2023. Huawei starts with 11With a share of 9%, it has become the fifth largest single-brand sales volume in China's smartphone market. The full-year figures for 2021 and 2022 are 10%, 6th and 7., respectively9%, 6th place (**counterpoint). It should be mentioned that the data from Counterpoint also shows that in Q4 2022, Huawei's market share has risen to 95%, a year-on-year increase of 15%, is the only positive growth brand in the top 7 in the entire market, at that time, with a series of new products such as the Mate 50 series, Huawei has begun to show good momentum. It's just that at that time, it was only the repair of the damaged business in previous years, and the real recovery will have to wait until 2023.
In the spring, key technologies led again
I plan to use the timeline of the 2023 new product launch conference to take stock of Huawei's mobile phone business this year, which is about the simplest and most direct way. On March 23, 2023, Huawei's spring all-scene conference was held, at this conference, the P60 series and Mate X3 new products were launched, the biggest significance of the former is to mark Huawei's turning point in the field of mobile phone imaging, and the significance of the latter is clear to everyone, it refreshes the industry's perception of folding screen mobile phones in a way that breaks through everyone's imagination.
In the past few years, because of the limitation of the entire mobile phone ** chain, the image that Huawei has always been proud of has not made considerable progress, and even as the first product of Huawei's own image brand XMAGE, the Mate 50 series is still polishing IMX766. But when it comes to the P60 series, the sensor under the XMAGE image system has finally ushered in a comprehensive update, especially the periscope telephoto lens of P60 Pro and P60 Art, whether it is parameters or actual image performance, personal evaluation is the first echelon of the industry.
Since the P30 generation, Huawei has been running all the way on the periscope telephoto track, until the 8 million pixel 10x telephoto on the P40 Pro+ and Mate X2. Just when everyone was still looking forward to Huawei's periscope telephoto and what else would be amazing, Huawei P50 Pro suddenly turned back and started to do 35x periscope small telephoto. It is true that it is possible to increase the periscope telephoto magnification, but its marginal effect has been severely diminished, and the negative impact on the size and weight of the phone is increasing day by day - the video phone has to be the phone first and foremost.
By the end of 2023, it is not difficult to see that the small telephoto of about 3x has been accepted by the entire industry: large aperture, floating lens group to take into account both near and far shooting, and enhanced telephoto night scene ......From this perspective, even with so many limitations, Huawei's leading role in mobile phone imaging still exists, especially the idea of improving the algorithm for telephoto imaging. It's just that there is a small episode in the release of the P60 series: the rococo white color, which has also led to the "gambling stone" style of fun communication among some consumers, and it is impossible to cry and laugh. "Consumers' pursuit of personalization is endless" is the best interpretation of this phenomenon.
Let's go back to the Mate X3. No matter how you look at it, this folding screen phone can be called a technology collection in the big fold category, and I can still recall "5The two parameters of "3mm" and "239g" appeared on the big screen of the press conference. On such a thin and light body, the periscope lens, 50W wireless charging, two-way Beidou satellite messaging, IPX8 water resistance, impact resistance soft screen, Kunlun glass ......Not a lot of one. I have to say that my dissatisfaction with it is mainly that the position of the side fingerprint is too high, not smooth, of course, these small problems are not a problem in 5G supplementation.
The emergence of Huawei Mate X3 is phenomenal, even the use of the 4G version of the Snapdragon 8+ can not stop consumers from pursuing it, driven by it, Huawei won nearly one-third of the sales of China's folding screen market in the first three quarters of 2023 (data**: IDC, 31.).7%), which is more than 600,000 units, more than 50% ahead of the second-place OPPO. The size of the Mate X3 is so extreme that the follow-up challenger, the Honor Magic V2, which sold more than 300,000 units as soon as it was launched, "stubbornly" removed the wireless charging function in order to surpass the Mate X3 in these two numbers.
It's just that Huawei's small folding screen model hasn't had a major update for a long time - I only recognize the P50 Pocket, and the Pocket S is only its "youth version". There are still some rumors in this,That is, the definition of the outer screen of the small folding model,Huawei's previous route has always been"Beautiful little waste",But in the face of the user's demand for external screen interaction,Huawei's small folding screen route may also make some changes。 I'm looking forward to holding it back for so long, and what kind of tricks Huawei will play in the CMF and design that it is good at.
A side story for spring, the nova 11 series and the Enjoy 60x
In mid-April, the Huawei nova 11 series was released. For this mid-to-high-end model, I have a special article about it, among which the nova 11 ultra can be said to be the most technical nova model in history. In addition to the Snapdragon 778G platform, which has gone through three generations, the nova 11 series has ushered in a comprehensive update of various peripheral technologies, including variable aperture main camera, Kunlun glass, satellite communications, etc. There is a key word that needs to be noted:Xingyao architecture,It is a new system proposed by Huawei for the durability of mobile phones,I want to say what you all know - Huawei mate 60 series of Xuanwu architecture,This should be one of the characteristics that Huawei will use to distinguish different series of models in the future。
At the end of this press conference, it also "by the way" launched a Changxiang 60x, nearly 7-inch large screen, using Huawei's "giant whale battery life system", the battery capacity reaches an exaggerated 7000mAh, and it also has 225W reverse fast charging ability, three-dimensional double lifting volume is amazing. It is not positioned high with the Snapdragon 680 platform, but the actual sales volume is good, the large screen and large volume have a long battery life, the Huawei brand, it is too suitable for daily worry-free use, isn't it?
In the summer, the road to the return of 5G begins
Since August 28, 2023, Huawei officially announced the "Pioneer Program" of the Mate 60 series, what has happened in the past few months has really been like a dream. In those two days, almost all of them were confused: consumers got their mobile phones before **, and such a thing almost never happened, so much so that Huawei also held a closed-door communication meeting to explain this matter to us. Next, Mate 60, Mate 60 Pro+, and Mate X5 joined the Pioneer Program successively, and it was not until September 25 that the Mate 60 RS was officially released, and Huawei's return to 5G came to an end. Later sales data shows that Huawei, consumers, and channels, everyone has waited too long for this day.
I've waited too long. For some reasons, the Kirin 9000s can't be said in too much detail, but some of the key nodes I can say are: In November 2022, Huawei's 5G return was basically confirmed, but the data of the chip at that time was not optimistic;At the end of February 2023, the parameters of the chip were updated to a new version, which has already made my jaw drop, and the progress is so fast;In the middle of 2023, when HDC 2023 was launched, a lot of information was basically confirmed, and at that time, I could basically imagine the grand occasion when the Kirin chip returned to the stage - it's just that I guessed the beginning, and I really couldn't guess the ending ......
Although this incident excites everyone, including me, since it is an inventory, there are some things that should be said more objectively. As I said in last week's Nova 12 series outlook article, the fully autonomous ** chain can make Huawei's mobile phone business more controllable, but the negative impact is that the cost is higher, and a larger shipment scale needs to be quickly reached to stabilize it. Then the characteristics of the chip itself will also limit the capabilities of some mobile phones, which can be seen from the huge VC vapor chamber shown by the Mate 60 series disassembly, Kirin 9000S has good performance, but it requires a stricter thermal management strategy to ensure the experience, especially in high computing power scenarios, such as images, games, etc.
However, fortunately, the main purpose of Huawei mobile phone users is still for daily use, so in a short period of time, whether it is the Kirin 9000s or the new platform on the nova 12 series, the user experience can be guaranteed, after all, HarmonyOS has spent considerable energy on reducing the burden on the system in the past few years, and the fluency of current use is very good. In particular, in 2024, HarmonyOS NEXT will be unveiled, and another fully autonomous software system will be launched, and its cooperation with the Kirin platform is quite worth looking forward to.
Another amazing feature of the Mate 60 series is the ability to talk to satellites, which is the first time that a regular civilian smartphone has achieved this feature, which is worth remembering. In just one year, starting with the Mate 50 series' one-way short satellite messages, Huawei has taken the satellite communication capabilities of smartphones to a new level. In the second half of 2023, more and more information shows that satellite communication capabilities will be adopted by more and more brands of smartphones in 2024, and Huawei's ability to lead new industries will once again be revealed: not only can the entire hardware industry chain be quickly activated, the cost of operation will also be reduced, and more importantly, the cost of operation services will also benefit, and consumers will ultimately benefit.
As mentioned earlier, the "architecture" and the Xuanwu architecture adopted by the Mate 60 series is also one of the factors that contribute to its high cost. Different from the sandwich structure that is common in mainstream smartphones, the Xuanwu architecture uses CNC technology to plane out the entire fuselage frame, and the front, middle and back are integrated, rather than the ordinary "screen-middle frame-back cover" structure, which is also an extremely rare solution in current smartphones. Matched with the second generation of Kunlun glass, about this glass, in the technical analysis of the mate 50 series I have already said, strictly speaking, it is not glass but ceramic, because the composition of traditional glass only accounts for about 10%, it is precisely because of the stress transmission characteristics of ceramics that it has a strong ability to resist drops. This piece of glass, which has been developed for more than 3 years, has also driven the progress of the domestic special glass industry, with Panda, Giant Rhino, Titan, and Longjing ......We're no longer just seeing Corning gorillas, Schott Race.
Huawei's return is bound to be a good thing for the entire domestic mobile phone ** chain, which was released at the time of the release of the Mate 60 series, and I specifically mentioned that we must not forget the joint efforts of the whole industry. I once heard a joke: **Chain manufacturers like to cooperate with two mobile phone manufacturers, one is Apple, the other is Huawei, although the quality requirements of these two are notoriously high, it is very difficult to cooperate, but they do not bargain, they can really make money. I don't think I'll hear this, but it is undeniable that Huawei's fully independent and controllable chain is a good thing for the entire domestic chain industry, and only in this way can we go to sea together and develop together, so that the world can feel the technical strength of China's first chain through these products.
Write at the end
About the 2023 inventory of Huawei smartphones, let's write here first, I have written as simple as possible, after all, due to many factors, some words cannot be said in too detail. In short, everyone should be happy that Huawei's 5G mobile phone can return this year, which is a good thing for the whole industry, but at the same time, the challenge is even greater: the landing of the Kirin 9000S also marks the official start of the iteration of the new Kirin chip, and the countdown to the release of the next-generation chip. What will Huawei do, what direction will Huawei smartphones develop, and how to narrow the distance ...... with the world's most advanced technology flagship chipsEvery question is a big test, and every time you solve one, it will be an "extraordinary turn"!