Huawei has once again "conquered" the folding screen market. On the afternoon of February 22, the Huawei Pocket 2 small folding mobile phone was officially released, and the Xuanwu waterdrop hinge technology directly hit the pain points of the folding screen screen that is easy to fold and deform. In addition, the progress of Huawei Pocket 2's support for two-way Beidou satellites has also made many consumers' eyes shine.
When domestic smartphone sales are still at a low ebb, folding screens have become one of the few bright spots and growth points in the industry. With the strength of the good wind, send me to the clouds, maybe whoever can solve the pain points of software and hardware first, who can occupy the new heights of the market first.
Flat like a straight machine".
Huawei's small fold is as flat as a straight board machine! At the press conference, Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, CEO of Device BG, and Chairman of Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, excitedly made such an evaluation. On the same day, Yu Chengdong personally stood on the platform and released Huawei's new generation of flagship small folding product, Huawei Pocket2.
For a long time, creases have been a big problem for folding screen mobile phones, and they are also the most complained about by consumers. In this regard, Huawei Pocket 2 adopts the industry's first basalt waterdrop hinge technology, which improves the flatness by 62% compared with the previous generation. For more data on the Xuanwu waterdrop hinge technology, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily contacted Huawei, but did not receive a reply.
In addition to the basalt waterdrop hinge technology, the Huawei Pocket 2 also uses super strong rocket steel and second-generation Kunlun glass, which significantly improves its flatness, strength, and drop resistance. Yu Chengdong mentioned that the screen of the Huawei Pocket 2 is still flat after three years of use.
According to official data, the Huawei Pocket 2 has a crease of only 48 after 15 days of use3um, and the crease is only 55 after three years of use6um。For comparison, the Huawei P50 Pocket has a 125 crease after 15 days of use3um, crease 150 after three years of use2um。
Huawei Pocket 2 is also the first product in the small folding field to support two-way Beidou satellite messaging. In the absence of a terrestrial network signal, it can still send information and support message reply, so as to realize the two-way communication between the rescuer and the rescuer.
According to the current public information, the Huawei Pocket series is mainly aimed at the fashion market, and the Huawei Pocket 2 brings Tahitian gray, Rococo white, taro purple, and Ya Black colors. Huawei said that Huawei Pocket 2 has the industry's smallest foldable and highest brightness inner screen, which is clearer; 1-120Hz frame rate adaptive refresh. The model unfolds the thickness of 735mm, weight 199g.
In terms of image, Huawei Pocket 2 adopts full-focal length XMAGE quad camera, consisting of 50 million pixel main camera + 8 million pixel telephoto lens + 12 million pixel ultra wide-angle macro lens + super spectrum lens.
*In terms of 12GB+256GB, 12GB+512GB, and 12GB+1T, the three models correspond to ** 7499 yuan, 7999 yuan, and 8999 yuan respectively. The memory of the art custom version is 16GB+1TB,**1999 yuan。 It is reported that Huawei Pocket 2 will open pre-sale at 18:08 on February 22 and officially go on sale on March 1.
Folding screen overlord.
In addition to Huawei Pocket 2, what makes Yu Chengdong the most proud is a set of data. It is reported that in the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei's folding screen mobile phones will be the first in the Chinese market, with a market share of 512%, consumer satisfaction first. Yu Chengdong said that Huawei's folding screen mobile phone has occupied the first place in the domestic folding screen market share for four consecutive years.
Huawei's first foldable screen phone, the Huawei Mate X, was released in 2019, and so far Huawei has released nine foldable screen phone products. The last folding screen product before the Huawei Pocket 2 was the Huawei Mate X5, which was released in September last year.
According to a report by IDC, a market research agency, 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.
Northeast ** believes that Huawei's mobile phone phoenix nirvana and return to the high-end mobile phone market. In the field of folding screens, Huawei has always maintained strong competitiveness. The development of high-performance mobile phones and folding screen mobile phones has put forward higher requirements for heat dissipation and battery life, and has also promoted the trend of thinning and lightening.
The release of Huawei Pocket 2 is undoubtedly an important layout of Huawei in the field of folding screen mobile phones. In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said that Huawei's advantages in folding screen mobile phones are mainly reflected in its strong R&D capabilities and brand influence, and Huawei has been committed to promoting technological innovation and optimization of folding screen mobile phones, so as to provide users with a better user experience.
In addition, Wang Peng believes that Huawei's in-depth understanding of consumer needs is also one of its strengths, which allows Huawei to launch products that are more in line with market demand.
The folding screen can be regarded as the "hope of the whole village" in the mobile phone market. In 2023, the performance of China's smartphone market will remain sluggish, with a report by IDC showing that China's smartphone market will ship about 27.1 billion units, down 50%, the lowest shipment volume in nearly a decade.
However, another report from IDC shows that China's folding screen mobile phone market will ship about 700 in 202370,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1145%。Specifically, in 2023, the top five manufacturers in China's folding screen mobile phone market will be Huawei, OPPO, Honor, Samsung, and vivo, with market share. 7%。
It is worth mentioning that on the same day that Huawei Pocket 2 was released, ZTE's mobile phone brand Nubia just announced that its first folding screen mobile phone, Nubia Flip, will be released on February 26.
A new battleground.
IDC reported that since the launch of the first product in 2019, China's folding screen mobile phone market shipments have grown by more than 100% year-on-year for four consecutive years. Tianfeng ** research report said that it continues to be optimistic about the direction of folding machines to become the iteration of high-end mobile phones. Domestic mainstream brands have entered the game, and China's folding screen mobile phone market is developing rapidly, with an estimated shipment of about 10 million units in 2024.
As for the reasons for the contrarian growth of the folding screen mobile phone market, Zhan Junhao, a well-known strategic positioning expert and founder of Fujian Great Aim Brand Positioning Consulting, said that first of all, driven by technological innovation, the folding screen design has brought users a new experience; Secondly, with the improvement of the chain and the maturity of technology, the development of folding screen mobile phones is gradually close to the people, so that more consumers are willing to try; Finally, the active participation of major mobile phone manufacturers has promoted the rapid development of the market by launching products with their own characteristics.
Wang Peng judged that due to its unique design and practicality, folding screen mobile phones may become the focus of a new round of competition among mobile phone manufacturers in the future.
However, folding screen mobile phones also have "hurdles" that need to be overcome. There is ** citing data from an industry report that there are concerns about quality (67.)5%), high (59.).5%), heavy fuselage (45%) became the three main reasons not to buy a folding machine. Factors such as the thickness of the whole machine, obvious creases, fragility and wear, abnormal hinges, poor application adaptation, and flying purchase and maintenance costs constitute the pain points of the folding machine.
*It is also one of the key obstacles to the popularity of foldable screen phones. As soon as Huawei Pocket 2 was released, some consumers gave feedback on social ** that "the mobile phone is really good, but ** is also really high", and some consumers believe that "small folding 6 people who start with the word 6 will generally face greater pressure".
When the folding machine was first introduced, it was often more than 10,000 yuan, and now the lowest has dropped to around 6,000 yuan. In June 2023, Lenovo Group launched the Moto Razr 40 series, with a starting price of 3999 yuan, which directly lowered the bottom line of folding screen mobile phones to 4000 yuan. According to the data of "2022 China Folding Screen Mobile Phone User Survey and Analysis", more than sixty percent of respondents** accept the range of 3000 [gf] 2212 [gf] 8000 yuan.
There are still many problems in the real popularization of folding screen mobile phones." Wang Peng believes that, first of all, from the perspective of hardware, the durability and stability of the folding screen have not yet reached the ideal state, and the screen is not resistant to falling, and the maintenance is expensive. In addition, the production cost of folding screen mobile phones is also relatively high, resulting in high product quality, which affects consumers' willingness to buy.
From a software point of view, how to provide a unique and optimized user experience for folding screen phones is also an urgent problem to be solved. Wang Peng believes that application and service providers need to adapt to the special form and size of folding screen phones to provide a better user experience. Finally, in terms of market ecology, the application scenarios and service ecology of folding screen mobile phones are not yet fully mature, and more applications and service providers need to join in to jointly promote their development.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Yang Yuehan.