At the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, domestic smartphone companies have released new products and strategies, releasing positive signals to the market with innovative breakthroughs in technology and design. Industry insiders said that in the context of the downturn in the global smartphone market, the support of the intensive "new" domestic mobile phones is the increasingly strong R&D capabilities and advanced manufacturing capabilities of Chinese enterprises.
Intensive scientific and technological innovation between square inches.
On February 22, Huawei released a new generation of small folding flagship mobile phone Pocket 2, and on the same day, Xiaomi also released a professional imaging flagship mobile phone 14 Ultra, and previously, OPPO and Meizu have successively announced new AI strategies.
Intensive scientific and technological innovation has become the highlight of this wave of "new" smartphone companies.
As Huawei's first mobile phone to be released in 2024, HUAWEI Pocket 2 condenses a number of industry firsts, such as the industry's first full-range XMAGE quad camera, the first introduction of a 3x optical telephoto lens into a small folding model, and the first realization of a folding screen with 2-meter IPX8 water resistance. In response to the technical problems of flatness and reliability of folding screen mobile phones, Pocket 2 is not only equipped with the industry's first basalt waterdrop hinge, but also innovatively adopts an exclusive floating screen design, and also uses high-strength super strong rocket steel at the folding hinge. "Huawei's small fold is as flat as a straight board machine. Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, CEO of Device BG, and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, said confidently at the press conference.
In terms of communication, battery life, and heat dissipation of the "congenital shortcomings" of small folding models, Pocket 2 also has a number of industry-leading innovative technologies. The application of super Lingxi communication technology solution, the first sunflower electromagnetic field superposition technology, the exclusive self-developed multi-antenna adaptive technology, etc., makes the small folding mobile phone achieve a smooth and fast communication experience, and the Pocket 2 is also the industry's first small folding model that supports the two-way Beidou satellite messaging function, which can achieve two-way communication without ground network signal. In addition, the Pocket 2 is also the industry's first small folding phone with a distributed charging architecture, and is equipped with an ultra-cold three-dimensional cooling system that is the first in the field of folding phones. It is worth mentioning that the image capabilities of Pocket 2 are not only limited to photography, but also support AI air control, high-precision sun protection detection and other functions.
We continue to innovate and use leading technology to bring consumers the ultimate high-end technology experience. Yu Chengdong said.
Xiaomi, on the other hand, focuses on imaging. According to reports, Xiaomi's newly released professional imaging flagship model 14 Ultra adopts a new top-level Leica Summlux optical lens system, the industry's first AI large model computational photography platform Xiaomi AISP, the first Xiaomi Jinshajiang battery and Xiaomi Dragon Armor architecture, and the whole system is equipped with two-way satellite communication as standard.
Previously, on February 20, OPPO released the 1+N agent ecological strategy, and the Find X7 released by OPPO in January this year is the first AI mobile phone to apply a large model with 7 billion parameters on the device side. In addition, Meizu, which was acquired by Geely, announced on February 18 that it would make a strategic adjustment, stopping the development of new projects of traditional "smartphones" and investing in a new generation of AI devices.
Folding screen and AI have become the focus of competition.
Since the second half of 2023, many highlights represented by the satellite call function have ignited consumers' enthusiasm for buying mobile phones, and even triggered the phenomenon of "hard to find" domestic mobile phones. Nowadays, in China's smartphone market, satellite communication function has almost become the "standard" of high-end models. According to the analysis of industry insiders, folding screen and AI will be the focus of competition in the smartphone market this year.
On February 20, market research institute IDC released a report showing that China's folding screen mobile phone market will ship about 700 in 202370,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1145%。According to the report, since the launch of the first product in 2019, China's folding screen mobile phone market has grown by more than 100% year-on-year for four consecutive years. As mobile phone manufacturers and upstream chains continue to increase R&D investment, hardware technology is improved and mature, software system application is optimized, and consumers' experience continues to improve.
According to the report, the Huawei Mate X5 series has been in a state of increased purchase since its launch, and the supply exceeds demand, helping Huawei firmly occupy the first position in the domestic folding screen market in 2023, with a market share of 374%。OPPO and Honor are named .Ranked with a market share of 7%.
II. Third. Samsung has more than half of the global foldable phone market, but only has an 11% market share in the highly competitive Chinese market, ranking fourth.
Industry insiders believe that the folding screen mobile phone, which has always been regarded as a "niche" in the past, has entered the mainstream consumption stage, and has walked out of a bright contrarian growth curve in the overall downturn of the mobile phone industry. According to the results of a 2023 survey by market research institute Counterpoint, the potential purchase intention of global mobile phone users is as high as 55%, while nearly two-thirds of high-end smartphone users in China are open to foldable phones, and as many as 64% of Chinese smartphone users in the $400 and above price range are considering buying a foldable phone at the next purchase.
Huaxin** related research report believes that folding screen mobile phones are the only growth segment in the global mobile phone market, thanks to the strong performance in the high-end market, the penetration rate of folding screen mobile phones has grown rapidly, the high-end market share continues to increase, and the market potential is huge.
Not only folding screens, but also AI large models have been pinned on by mobile phone companies. Xiaomi not only released the 14 Ultra this time equipped with the AI large model computational photography platform Xiaomi AISP, but also deployed the AI device-side large model on the Xiaomi 14 and 14Pro models released in October last year. Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, once revealed that the large model of Xiaomi's mobile phone has been preliminarily run, and the main breakthrough direction is lightweight and local deployment. Lei Jun also said at the time that AI is the future of productivity, and it is also the underlying track of Xiaomi's long-term continuous investment. Liu Zuohu, chief product officer of OPPO, believes that AI mobile phones will be the third major stage of change in the mobile phone industry after feature phones and smart phones.
IDC's "AI Mobile Phone*** It is expected that the new generation of AI mobile phones will drive a new round of replacement from 2024, and the global shipment of new generation AI mobile phones will reach 1700 million units, accounting for about 15% of the overall shipments of smart phones. Specific to the Chinese market, IDC also expects that with the rapid iteration of new chips and user use scenarios, the new generation of AI mobile phones will reach 1500 million units, with a market share of more than 50%.
Move towards the top end to create a competitive advantage.
According to IDC, global smartphone shipments in 2023 fell by 34%, but the average selling price has increased by 8% year-on-year, and the demand for high-end smartphones is continuing to climb; Among them, the share of high-end products above $600 in the fourth quarter was 274%, a year-on-year increase of 37%。
It is an indisputable fact that domestic mobile phones are increasingly moving to the high-end. The reporter observed that the first of many domestic brand mobile phones has exceeded 10,000 yuan. Huawei released the Mate 60 RS Extraordinary Master mobile phone in September last year, the starting price is 11999 yuan, the starting price of the Mate X5 series mobile phone is 12999 yuan, and the Pocket 2 small folding mobile phone art custom version released this time, ** is 10999 yuan. The starting price of the Magic V2 RSR Porsche Design mobile phone released by Honor in January this year is 15999 yuan, and the starting price of the Find N3 folding screen mobile phone released by OPPO in October last year is 9999 yuan, and the price of the collector's version is 12999 yuan.
Not only first, but also more high-end in technology and design, it is also a new highlight of domestic mobile phones. The reporter saw at the Huawei Pocket 2 press conference that the design of this small folding mobile phone is unique, and the main "Tahitian Gray" color matching model uses the industry's unique condensing mother-of-pearl technology to finely reproduce the natural texture of Tahitian black lipped oyster on the fuselage, and then superimpose a unique optical coating layer, making the "Tahitian Gray" of each mobile phone unique. In particular, Huawei once again joined hands with international high-end fashion designer Iris van Herpen to create the Huawei Pocket 2 Art Customized Edition, through the exquisite 3D dynamic space technology of 680,000 lithography lenses, in only 0On the 14mm diaphragm, through 87 complex and precise production processes, a highly impactful 3D space visual experience is created. As Yu Chengdong said, "HUAWEI Pocket 2 aims to create a scientific and technological artwork in the field of mobile phones and set a new benchmark for technological aesthetics. ”
According to the analysis of industry experts, in the process of moving towards high-end, the domestic smart phone head enterprises have shown many advantages and innovations, not only in the first chain management, production and manufacturing and other aspects of strong strength and experience accumulation, so that they can quickly respond to market demand, reduce costs, improve quality, and also achieve remarkable results in technological innovation, these innovations not only improve the performance experience of products, but also enhance the competitiveness of the brand.
According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology a few days ago, the added value of China's electronic information manufacturing industry above designated size will increase by 3% year-on-year in 20234%, among the main products, the output of mobile phones is 15700 million units, a year-on-year increase of 69%, the production of the industry is recovering, and the efficiency is gradually recovering.
The innovative breakthrough of domestic smartphones is a microcosm of China's manufacturing towards high-end. According to the latest news from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the "new" momentum of China's industrial economy has been further enhanced, with the layout of 27 national manufacturing innovation centers, accelerating the construction of 45 national advanced manufacturing clusters, and actively cultivating a number of emerging industries such as new materials and robots to grow rapidly.
As Zheng Hairong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, on the basis of enhancing original innovation, "Made in China" should strengthen the construction of a complete industrial chain, continuously improve engineering process capabilities, create a financial innovation system, and jointly promote China's transformation from a manufacturing country to a manufacturing power.