Honor has made frequent moves recently. At the full-scenario conference held on July 21, Honor officially announced the Honor developer service platform to accelerate the deployment of full-scenario smart ecological cooperation. Through this open platform, developers can join the Honor smart life software ecology and Honor Internet hardware ecology in one stop, and experience the new definition of the Honor full scene of "wherever you are, the classroom/office/home is right there".
Judging from this action, it may be that Honor wants to get rid of Huawei's shadow further. In order to enhance the thickness of the business, the gradual establishment of notebooks, tablets, TVs and other product lines is the first step for Honor to take the lead, but it has not won good support from the market. Only the mobile phone business "inherited" a part of Huawei's "Honor Voice" to be able to surge.
Honor is still a long way from completely tearing off the "Huawei" label.
Born in Huawei
Before 2011, Huawei’s mobile phones were mainly customized by operators. Basically, they did not have their own marketing channels and produced low-end mobile phones. After Yu Chengdong took over Huawei’s terminal business, Huawei began the transformation from toB to toC.
At first, Huawei was inspired by Internet mobile phone brands including Xiaomi to launch three sub-brands, Honor, Vision, and Spark, but in the end, only the Honor brand can stand alone. Honor's first mobile phone, Honor 1, was launched in the U.S. market in November 2011. As a member of Huawei's product line, it was launched only three months after Xiaomi Mi 1 went on the market.
The P1, D1, D2 and Mate1 launched by Huawei subsequently received mediocre response from the market, and what was even more severe was that the then CEO Wan Biao was also transferred to other departments. At the end of 2013, Xiaomi announced the shipment results of Xiaomi mobile phones, 18.79 million units, and the achievement of Honor was less than one-fifth of that of the Redmi series.
It is precisely because Honor lost to Xiaomi, so the official has always only regarded the previous launch of Honor as a stepping stone in the to c field. It was not until the "Huawei Honor New Product Launch Conference" on December 16, 2013 that the brand was officially announced. .
It is well known that Huawei has since suffered commercial sanctions. Affected by this, on November 17, 2020, Huawei announced the official sale of Honor. Huawei no longer holds any shares, and no longer participates in business management and decision-making. Since then, Honor has been able to avoid Huawei's sanctions and continue to cooperate with Qualcomm and other manufacturers to launch 5G mobile phones.
Glory to the top
Since leaving Huawei, Honor has gone through the darkest moment. From the second half of 2021, it finally ushered in the dawn. In 2022, it ushered in the bright moment, and Honor reached the top.
Through online and offline joint efforts, the sales volume of Honor mobile phones has finally reached the top for the first time. According to the domestic mobile phone shipments and growth rate rankings for the first quarter of 2022 released by the data statistics agency canalys, Honor successfully won the first place with a 20% market share, while OPPO and Apple ranked second and third respectively.
Looking at the split data, Honor's performance last year was amazing. In the first quarter of 2021, the shipment of Honor mobile phones was only 4.9 million units, accounting for only 5% of the market share, but this year, its shipments reached 15 million units, with an annual growth rate of 205%.
Judging from the data released in April and May, Honor still performed well, selling 3.34 million units in April, including 380,000 high-end mobile phones (4000+). According to data released by CINNO Research, Honor sold 3.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 70.9% and a month-on-month increase of 10.5%, ranking first in sales.
However, it is worth noting that the amazing sales volume of Honor is inseparable from channel suppliers. A large number of exclusive areas, counters and authorized experience stores have given Honor a large degree of market exposure. Honor CEO Zhao Ming also revealed that the Honor line Sales accounted for more than 70%.
heads up apples
In terms of marketing ideas, Zhao Ming still maintains Huawei's style. He once "spoke wildly" and shouted at Apple, and even wanted to "single out" Apple:
"The high-end market is second only to Huawei, and the new flagship will be released with Apple as the only competing brand." In terms of consumer experience, we should benchmark against Apple”, “Not only should we compete with Apple in terms of experience, performance, camera and many other aspects, but we also want everyone to feel Honor’s determination and efforts to win the support of high-end users in terms of price”, “In In the high-end market, Huawei and Apple used to be the two poles in the country. After Huawei’s mobile phone business was restricted, Apple became the only one, and Honor wants to change the situation of Apple’s dominance.”
In his speeches in the past two years, Zhao Ming has constantly emphasized the high-end performance of Honor, and set the iPhone as an imaginary enemy. .
But this is the fact that it is difficult to surpass. In the past two years, the mobile phone market has become saturated, and the replacement cycle of consumers is extending. In the glory of the brand building period, it is difficult for consumers to spend more than 5,000 yuan to buy Android flagship phones.
After all, in China’s high-end mobile phone market (price above 4,000 yuan), the iPhone’s market share is still in a monopoly position. According to data from market research firm Strategy Analytics, among the 14 million smartphones sold during the 618 Shopping Festival in 2022, Apple will account for the majority of sales. half of.
Trapped in Huawei
The equity is easy to divest, but it is difficult to get rid of the shadow of rising by "eating" Huawei's brand dividends. Huawei's strong brand effect has not only brought a large number of users to Honor, but also brought troubles to its brand building and overseas markets. .
First of all, most of the functions and functions of Honor mobile phones are provided by Huawei, such as Huawei Video, Huawei Reading, Sports and fitness apps, etc., are all provided by Huawei. Although Honor has established a professional R&D team, the development of Huawei It is still difficult to de-Huawei.
Secondly, in the after-sales system, Honor still shares after-sales services with Huawei at present. Most of the after-sales addresses displayed on the official website of Honor are Huawei’s official after-sales addresses. It is inseparable from the support of Huawei.
It seems to be a "substitute" for Huawei mobile phones. Once Huawei is freed from sanctions, Honor will also face huge market challenges.
After all, Honor does not have Kirin, nor does it have Hongmeng. The road to "Huaweiization" of Honor, once Huawei is no longer restricted, perhaps choosing to return to Huawei is the best way out.