Author |The bell has been ringing.
Text |Bell said.
When it comes to computers and PCs, I believe that many consumers will subconsciously label the industry: sunset industry. After all, it is already the era of mobile Internet, and the use scenarios of traditional PCs are shrinking, and the market research agency Gartner report shows that as of the third quarter of 2023, global PC shipments have declined for eight consecutive quarters.
Canalys data shows that in the third quarter of this year, the top five manufacturers in terms of global shipments were Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and Asus, in addition to HP, the shipments and market share of the remaining four manufacturers have declined to varying degrees.
Although, since the second half of the year, the trend of PC shipments has slowed down, but in the face of serious homogenization, lack of innovation, market saturation and other problems, major PC manufacturers hope to find a way to break the situation and inject "new vitality" into PC in the era of mobile Internet.
01 Traditional PC is "cool", AI PC becomes "hope sustenance"?
Morgan Stanley mentioned in the 2023 PC market** that the entire PC market has fallen to a 20-year low. But in fact, before that, the development of traditional PCs was no longer optimistic.
On the one hand, in terms of product composition, the core software and hardware of traditional PCs are mainly operating systems, CPUs, motherboards, etc., these core components have been dominated by several old enterprises, and they have been very transparent, like consumer electronics such as smartphones, in the current state of the industrial chain, the hardware innovation of traditional PCs will become more and more limited.
On the other hand, in the context of less and less hardware innovation, the share of the PC market has gradually become saturated, and manufacturers can only fall into "internal friction", and for the entire industry, it has ushered in a "dead loop" of lack of innovation - profit contraction - no time for innovation.
Of course, the main reason is that in the "multi-screen era", people's work and life patterns are becoming more and more fragmented, and the characteristics of traditional PCs such as large size, difficult to move, and lack of touch screens are "gradually distant" from the needs of current consumers, and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have replaced traditional PCs as the main computing tools for a new generation of consumers.
This is also why the sub-category of notebooks has always maintained market vitality in the pan-PC industry, and even shipments once skyrocketed against the trend after the epidemic, the core is not its innovation in the field of hardware, but innovation in use scenarios, driven by the demand for remote office, online classrooms, etc.
In this context, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and other PC manufacturers in the notebook market "fighting" is also becoming more and more intense, the domestic pan-PC industry is also re-"reshuffling".
According to the Canalys report, in the second quarter of 2023, the Chinese market shipped 968 personal computers (desktops, laptops and workstations).10,000 units, down 19% year-on-year, but Huawei was 88With 80,000 shipments, it jumped to the third place in the shipment ranking list with a year-on-year growth rate of 6%, second only to Lenovo and HP, and surpassing Dell and Apple.
But from the point of view of shipments, in addition to Lenovo can rely on stable product line updates and high brand reputation to lead, the gap between other PC manufacturers is not large, how to break the situation, in order to continue to win the favor of the market?
With the popularity of ChatGPT on the whole network, AI PC with the blessing of artificial intelligence technology is becoming the "new hope" of many manufacturers. In September this year, Pat Kissinger, CEO of Yuetel, first proposed the concept of AI PC, which is simply to make AI and PC work closely together through the cloud to fundamentally reshape the PC experience.
Since then, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and other manufacturers have followed suit, and many industry insiders believe that AI PC will be a key turning point in the PC market in the next few years.
It is true that AI PCs can improve the computing power and intelligent interaction capabilities of notebooks, driving consumers' willingness to change phones. However, it should be noted that after the implementation of AI PCs, a multi-layer open and prosperous ecosystem of users, terminal vendors, models, applications, and computing power will be formed, which means that PCs must break the barriers of single-ended independent existence.
In this way, the hardware configuration that can realize AI technology is only one of them, and the core lies in how to realize cross-device human-computer interaction with the help of AI technology.
Therefore, the key to "rejuvenating new machines" in the pan-PC industry is not only the product form of AI PC, but also how PCs can be added to the future smart ecosystem, which is the main reason why Huawei proposes smart PCs.
The reason why Huawei's "dark horse" can run out against the trend in the notebook market is not only because the rise of domestic brands has played a "substitution role", but also because of the in-depth insight into the ecology of smart terminals.
02 The rise of segmentation demand, PC manufacturers "overcome rigidity with softness".
It is not difficult to see that in the cold winter period of consumer electronics, PC has entered a new innovation cycle, which is not only a breakthrough in the field of hardware, but a comprehensive innovation of software and hardware integration technology, which will bring PC from the "functional era" to the "intelligent era".
Under the general trend of technological change in the Internet of Everything, the functions of traditional PCs are increasingly dispersed to mobile phones, tablets, and even multi-terminal devices such as smart screens, and the recently released Huawei MateBook D16 has become an important part of Huawei's all-scenario ecosystem with its minimalist design, performance, thinness, and integration of software and hardware.
According to GFK data, in the third quarter of this year, Huawei's smart PC market share in the thin and light market segment reached 243%, and the share in the downline channel is as high as 378%, becoming the first place in the market share of thin and light notebooks.
The key to Huawei's notebook being able to buck the trend is that it can take the lead in gaining insight into the new trend of consumer demand, equip traditional PCs with "smart brains", and remove barriers to interaction and service of PC products in different scenarios.
First of all, it is to break down the barriers of "form". As Gen Z consumers have gradually become the mainstream consumer group, their way of working, living, and entertaining have changed greatly.
Taking office as an example, there is more and more time for mobile office, and WeChat, as the main social app, needs to be constantly rotated in mobile phones, tablets and computers more often, which requires new smart PCs to achieve "multi-screen collaboration", "light and thin and convenient to move", "convenient transmission" and other needs.
According to Ovirivo data, this year's "Double 11" high-resolution notebooks and 16:10 sales have increased sharply year-on-year, in addition, last year's highest-selling thin and light notebooks have not yet reached a new round of replacement cycle, and sales have declined slightly.
Data**: Ovirivo (**C Revo) unit: 10,000 units, %
Based on accurate insights into consumers, Huawei has always "thought about what consumers think", and its first notebook MateBook launched in 2016 has shown the characteristics of extreme thinness and lightness, and the weight of the MateBook D 16 2024 is only 168kg。
Through the innovative solutions represented by the bionic shark fin continuously variable speed fan and negative pressure cooling cabin, and at the same time drawing on the high-compactness internal architecture stacking capability design and high-precision chain components of smartphones, Huawei notebooks take into account the professionalism of high performance and the portability of thin and light laptops, and can better adapt to different mobile office scenarios.
In addition, Huawei MateBook D 16 2024 also brings a large screen with narrow bezels at 16:10, which not only has a stylish and high-value appearance, but also has a high-resolution and eye-friendly full screen, which can increase the amount of information displayed on the same screen by 11%.
At present, many consumers are "slash youth", whether it is a blogger, self-a**, part-time designer and other occupations, notebooks are important productivity tools, for office can see a more comfortable screen, for design higher color resolution, can meet the most real needs of "workers".
Secondly, it is to break down the barriers of "software" and introduce new concepts such as "cross-screen experience" and "smart office". With the popularization of mobile office, multi-device collaboration is a very necessary feature.
Huawei notebooks, represented by the Huawei MateBook D 16, have opened up the ecology of Windows PCs and mobile devices, and can realize the "multi-screen collaboration" of mobile phones, tablets, and monitors.
In addition, Huawei has also brought a good assistant for "smart office", including a number of remote meeting functions such as AI insight, AI sound effects, and quiet space calls, to better meet different scenarios such as hybrid office and freelancing.
Finally, it is to break down the "purchase" barrier. Compared with the two products of Huawei MateBook D16 2024 and 2023, under the same level configuration, the first launch of Huawei MateBook D16 2024** is cheaper by more than 500 yuan, simply put, "price increase does not increase quantity", "quality-price ratio" is the core that can continue to attract consumers.
From a long-term perspective, although Huawei notebooks have not brought "epoch-making breakthroughs" in hardware, their innovations in application functions and scenarios are very distinct and prominent.
With the continuous innovation and iteration of smart terminals and the continuous expansion of Huawei's ecosystem, Huawei's innovative model will eventually bring further "dimensionality reduction" to traditional PCs, which is also an important reason why the industry remains optimistic about Huawei PCs for a long time.
03 Create a full scene"Super ecological", Huawei is leading the new transformation
In fact, Huawei's latest release is not only MateBook D 16 2024, but also at the just held Zhijie S7 and Huawei all-scenario press conference, Huawei also brought Hongmeng Zhixing's first sedan Zhijie S7, Wenjie new M7 rear-wheel drive intelligent driving version, and Huawei Whole House Intelligence 50. Huawei MatePad Pro 11-inch 2024 and many other new products in all scenarios.
Since 2019, Huawei has been focusing on the "1+8+N" all-scenario smart strategy to achieve a full-scenario and multi-category integrated layout in the hardware field, "1" refers to smartphones, "8" refers to mobile phones, speakers, earphones, watches, bracelets, tablets, large screens, PCs, and AR VR products, and N refers to many pan-IoT devices.
In the hardware field, Huawei has penetrated into the bottom layer of the operating system, opened up application services and ecology through the HarmonyOS system, and efficiently opened up five major life scenarios: smart home, efficient office, smart travel, sports and health, and audio-visual entertainment, building a full-scenario smart life with Huawei's Internet of Everything.
Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business, once said that all-scenario smart living is the long-term strategy of Huawei's consumer business in the next 5-10 years. At present, this strategic goal is leading the continuous innovation of Huawei's PC business.
In the past, the ecosystem of computers and other smart terminals was separated, and users often needed more cumbersome operations when they wanted to transfer files or try to work on multiple screens. In order to achieve the goal of "all-scenario smart life", Huawei notebooks have put forward the idea of "ecological integration", which allows PCs to change the shortcomings of "single-ended circulation" in the past ten years by "breaking the wall" in technology, software, and ecology.
For consumers, this is also a major breakthrough in user experience, so that they can no longer be limited by the service restrictions of terminals, no longer limited by the application ecology, and truly realize the full scene leap.
Yu Chengdong announced the full launch of HarmonyOS native applications at Huawei's autumn all-scenario new product launch conference held in September this year, which also means that the completely independent ecology of "pure-blooded Hongmeng" is coming.
As of August 2023, the number of devices in the HarmonyOS ecosystem has exceeded 700 million, the number of developers has reached 2.2 million, and the number of software and hardware products has exceeded 350.
With the continuous improvement of the HarmonyOS technology base and ecosystem, it means that Huawei's all-scenario smart life has a more stable and continuous "scene traffic", and when the HarmonyOS ecosystem matures, Huawei is expected to lead notebook products to a new growth path in the PC industry with "all-scenario crossover".
After more than 40 years of development, the pan-PC industry has already entered the maturity and popularization cycle, at this stage, the industry has its own "ceiling", * chain, the solidification of market share restricts the innovation and development of the industry, and cross-border ability or is the key to the PC industry to break through itself again.
It will be interesting to see whether Huawei can take the lead in the entire PC industry and lead the evolution of the pan-PC track into a new pattern by virtue of its "one step ahead" in the smart ecosystem.
It is true that compared with the breakthrough of PC hardware, Huawei's "cross-border + intelligent" innovation model may not be easier and easier, but for Huawei, doing "difficult but correct" things has always been what it does best, and in order for Huawei's ecosystem to continue to develop healthily, Huawei must play this "big chess game".
All of this article is on the Internet.