Big data industry innovation service media
——Focus on data·Changing business
After nearly three years of silence, the mobile phone market has finally experienced a major explosion. Huawei's Mate 60 Pro caused a stir with huge pre-release warm-up. The debut of this mobile phone marks Huawei's renewed efforts in the field of mobile phones. At this point, Huawei fired the first shot of the return of the king.
Amid the excitement of "Kirin's return" and "far ahead", the price of Huawei Mate 60 Pro was 6,999 yuan, but it was sold out in an instant. Some consumers are even willing to pay a high premium to buy, and some dealers have increased the selling price by 1,300 yuan, and the resale price on second-hand platforms is also about 200-600 yuan higher.
In this way, this sudden Huawei Mate 60 Pro craze, with Huawei's efforts, dealers' positive response, consumers' enthusiastic support, and the public's extensive discussion, jointly staged a long-lost carnival feast.
At the same time, the industry also discovered some clues about the linkage between Honor and it. As early as early August, Honor CEO Zhao Ming responded for the first time at a media communication meeting that if Huawei 5G returns, Honor will be the happiest. After Huawei's return, there were even more news: the Honor Market became the Huawei Market, there was a slip of the tongue between Huawei and Honor at the Honor Magic5 launch conference, and other news came out.
It is absolutely impossible for Honor to return to Huawei
Honor was born in 2013 as a sub-brand of Huawei. Honor, which was originally "born from the same roots", was fully acquired by Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. on November 17, 2020. After the sale, Huawei no longer holds the new Honor company. of any shares.
Huawei also issued a statement on its official website, announcing that at this difficult time when industrial technology elements are unsustainably available and consumer business is under tremendous pressure, in order to allow Honor channels and suppliers to continue, Huawei Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. has decided to sell the Honor business assets as a whole and acquire Fang is Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. Huawei will not hold any shares in the post-closing Honor, nor will it participate in business management and decision-making. Since then, Glory has become independent.
Huawei and Honor have also taken completely different development trajectories. From 2021 to 2022, Huawei's sales began to decline, slipping from first to fifth place, while Honor's sales continued to rise, ranking second in 2022.
Regarding various previous speculations, Honor CEO Zhao Ming refuted the rumors on the evening of the 19th. He said, "It is absolutely impossible for Honor to return to Huawei. Huawei is Honor's most respected and most anticipated competitor, and Honor must turn itself into a qualified and excellent competitor of Huawei."
Zhao Ming also said, "Huawei's return has made the industry full of competitiveness and challenges. Doing something challenging is something that makes the Honor team excited. For Honor's former Huawei identity, we hope to use the best products and status to compete with Huawei." compete."
Regarding the view that "Honor will be the most affected after Huawei's return", Zhao Ming believes that this kind of worry is unnecessary. In his view, Huawei, which lacks 5G, has also launched products such as the Mate 50 series and P60 series, which are already fully competitive with Honor. Judging from the current market share, Honor does not have a disadvantage.
In fact, Zhao Ming's remarks are not without trace. First of all, Honor has been independently sold to an enterprise group supported by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and is no longer within Huawei’s capital structure. This transaction will separate Honor from Huawei, giving it an independent financial and operating system and no longer receiving direct financial support from Huawei.
Secondly, restrictions in laws, regulations and policies are also an important factor. The U.S. government has imposed a series of sanctions on Huawei, including banning U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei. These restrictions also apply to Honor, which was once a sub-brand of Huawei. This has led to a series of legal and policy issues that need to be resolved to make the return of Honor to Huawei possible.
In addition, Honor has established an independent supply chain and production system, and its cooperative relationship with Huawei has been dissolved. Reintegrating these relationships will take time and resources and may not be easy to achieve.
Finally, market competition is also one of the factors that makes its return impossible. Honor and Huawei have become independent competitors in the global smartphone market, and they may have differences in brand, market positioning and product strategies. If Honor returns to Huawei, it may cause the two to compete for the same user group in the market, which is not in line with their respective business strategies and interests.
Honor was originally sold by Huawei for 200 billion. If Honor were to return, Huawei might need to spend 200 billion or more to buy back Honor. This is obviously unlikely.
Taken together, from the capital and business levels, Honor has been sold independently and separated from Huawei's control and influence, and is no longer part of Huawei. Reintegrating the two brands will face complex legal, business and market challenges and be costly, so it is unlikely that Honor will return to Huawei.
Equal treatment, friendly competition
Since it is impossible for Honor to return, what kind of relationship will Honor and Huawei have in the future? After Huawei's strong return, what new stories will the former "brothers" have?
The latest data shows that the pattern of China's mobile phone market is undergoing major changes. The IDC report shows that in China's smartphone market in the second quarter of 2023, Huawei's mobile phone market share soared 76.1% year-on-year, ranking fifth with a market share of 13%. At that time, Honor ranked third with a share of 16.4%.
According to 2023 W36 (September 4-September 10) data from the industry's authoritative market research agency, Huawei has won the second place in the Chinese smartphone market with a sales market share of 17%, and is better than the first-ranked Honor (17.2%) is only 0.2% behind. At the same time, supply chain people predict that by W37 (September 11-September 17), Huawei is expected to surpass Honor and achieve the largest sales market share.
Taken together, the relationship between Honor and Huawei is undergoing profound changes in the Chinese mobile phone market. This relationship has evolved in multiple dimensions at both the competition and business levels:
competitive level
From a competitive perspective, Honor has given its attitude long ago. Honor and Huawei are still competitors, but the relationship has become more equal and respectful. Honor CEO Zhao Ming emphasized that the competition between the two parties should be based on the highest standards and the strongest state, which shows the positive attitude of both parties towards competition.
Three years ago, Honor's business was still struggling after becoming independent from Huawei. But three years later, according to the latest data from IDC, Honor's market share ranked third in the country. On the international stage where Huawei is shouting the slogan of "surpassing Samsung and Apple", Honor is taking over and marching into overseas high-end markets alongside other Chinese mobile phone brands.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei once expressed at the Honor farewell party in 2020 that he hopes Honor will fully embrace global industrial resources, establish relationships with suppliers as soon as possible, and at the same time, become Huawei's strongest competitor in the world. "Beyond Huawei, you can even shout down Huawei, it will become a self-motivation slogan for you." Now, this expectation is becoming a reality.
In terms of market share, both Huawei and Honor have maintained strong competitiveness in the Chinese smartphone market. Huawei's market share has increased rapidly, while Honor ranks third. Honor has maintained a stable market share after Huawei's return and is actively expanding overseas markets. This shows that Honor is actively adapting to market changes and striving to remain competitive.
business level
From a business perspective, whether Honor will adopt Huawei's Hongmeng system and Kirin chips in the future is a matter of great concern.
1. Adoption of Hongmeng system: The relationship between Honor and Huawei has changed, but whether Honor will adopt Hongmeng system still depends on multiple factors. Zhao Ming once expressed concern about the development of Hongmeng system, but also indicated that Honor may fully develop on the Android system. This means that Honor may not use Hongmeng system in the short term, but will continue to rely on Android system.
2. Use of Kirin chips: The chips currently used by Honor are supplied by Qualcomm, and Qualcomm has a cooperative relationship with Honor. Therefore, Honor may not use Huawei’s Kirin chips in the short term. However, given Huawei’s investment and strength in the chip field, the possibility of using Kirin chips in the future cannot be ignored.
The release of Huawei mate60 shows that Huawei has opened up the entire industry chain from foundries to chip design to IP to operating systems. Huawei already has de facto chip production capabilities. The only shortcoming is its production capacity.
However, it should be noted that if Honor uses Kirin chips, it may face the risk of sanctions from the US government. The U.S. government has imposed a series of sanctions on Huawei, including banning U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei. Honor may face legal and business risks if it adopts sanctioned technology. In addition, technology integration and adaptation work are also necessary steps for the adoption of new systems and chips. Honor needs to ensure that the system and chips are compatible with its hardware and applications to provide a stable and high-performance user experience.
3. Business linkage effects: If Honor decides to adopt Huawei’s Hongmeng system and Kirin chips, there may also be linkage effects at other business levels. For example, Honor can share its ecosystem with Huawei, including app stores, cloud services and smart device ecosystems, to provide a more integrated user experience.
Huawei has only taken the first step in returning to the mobile phone market, and the challenges it faces are clearly visible: from the production capacity scale of Kirin chips to the stability of the supply chain, to the independent controllability of the supply chain, these issues are still not clear s solution. In the future, Huawei may also face a new round of international sanctions, increasing uncertainty.
At the same time, Honor maintains a stable position in the mobile phone market and actively expands into the high-end mobile phone market. The pattern of the mobile phone market is undergoing a reshuffle, and it is expected that by 2024, China's domestic mobile phone market will see fierce competition.
Text: Yuanyuan / Data Yuan
