Apple, Huawei, Leng Qiucheng

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Text / Sun Pengyue

Source/Zinc Finance (ID: xincaijing)

At 1:00 a.m. on September 8, the 2022 Apple Autumn Conference was held as scheduled.

The most popular iPhone 14 series has completely bid farewell to the “small-screen flagship”. Due to the poor sales of the iPhone 12/13 mini for two consecutive generations, Apple directly cut off the mini version. In contrast, with the addition of a Plus model to the iPhone 14 series, everything seems to be Apple’s compromise for a large screen.

In addition to the iPhone 14 series, Apple has also updated two product lines, Apple Watch and AirPods Pro, and launched the more professional and more expensive Apple Watch Ultra for the first time.

Backtracking on History

The iPhone 14 series did not see a price increase as the media speculated. The iPhone 14 starts at 5,999 yuan, the new iPhone 14 Plus starts at 6,999 yuan, the iPhone 14 Pro starts at 7,999 yuan, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at 7,999 yuan. 8,999 yuan; each grade is 1,000 yuan more expensive, which is very in line with Apple’s obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It is worth mentioning that although the starting price of the minimum configuration has not changed, the price of higher specifications of memory has indeed increased. The price of 256G has increased by 100 yuan, the price of 512G has increased by 300 yuan, and the price of the 1TB version has increased by 500 yuan.

The iPhone 14 series this time can be called “reversing history”: the SoCs of the iPhone 14/Plus use the full-blooded A15 chip, which is the iPhone 13 Pro/Max and chips from last year; while the latest flagship SoC A16 chip is used by the iPhone 14 Pro/Max exclusive.

This is the first time Apple has used older chips in its digital flagship lineup since the birth of iPhones and A-series chips.

In addition to the hardware configuration, the appearance of the iPhone 14 series has not changed much this time, and it is still a right-angle frame + new colors, continuing the design habit of “technology is based on color change”. The iPhone 14/Plus comes in five colors: light blue, pink purple, black (midnight), white (starlight), and red; the iPhone 14 Pro/Max comes in four colors: dark purple, gold, silver, and black.

The only highlight is that the iPhone 14 Pro/Max changed the screen cutout at the top from the bangs screen to the “pill screen”, and added a Dynamic island (Smart Island) interactive design.

Can the starting price of the iPhone 14 Pro/Max be up to 7999 yuan just by relying on the pill screen and excessive animation? Questions abound on social media, but Apple is quite confident in its own iPhone 14 series. According to Zhongguancun Online, Apple has asked Foxconn and other factories to stock up in advance. The new iPhone 14 series has now produced more than 34 million units, more than one-third of the original order of 90 million units at the end of this year.

With 34 million iPhone 14 series ready in advance, this is probably the iPhone with the most stock in recent years, which shows that Apple has a higher shipping target for the iPhone 14 series.

But at a time when the overall market is declining in 2022, it is indeed a great challenge for the iPhone 14 series to maintain the sales miracle of the previous generation of iPhones.

Huawei competes on the same stage

The day before Apple’s iPhone 14 series was released, Huawei released the Mate 50 series.

As Huawei’s flagship that arrived more than two years late, the Mate 50 series has no new breakthroughs in hardware: the whole series is equipped with a 4G version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 processor, a 6.7-inch OLED screen, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 66W wired fast charging. Charge and 50W wireless fast charge.

The Mate 50 product can be said to have made a breakthrough under various blockades: the chip does not need 5G, so it becomes a “5G mobile phone” by configuring a 5G mobile phone case; the camera and Leica were forced to “break up”, and Huawei launched the imaging brand XMAGE , forming a self-contained mobile imaging technology; the system was cut off by Android, and the Mate 50 was equipped with the latest Harmony 3.0, striving to catch up with the footsteps of iOS and Android…

In addition, Mate 50 also supports Beidou satellite message hardware capabilities, more durable Kunlun glass, magnetic field micro-controlled motors, low-battery emergency mode, hyperspace storage compression technology and other black technology technologies to make up for some SoC performance gaps.

In terms of price, Huawei Mate 50E starts at 3,999 yuan, Mate 50 starts at 4,999 yuan, Mate 50 Pro starts at 6,799 yuan, and Mate 50 RS starts at 12,999 yuan.

According to media reports: The stock of Mate 50 series is 6 million, but due to the influence of 4G mobile phones, the sales volume is expected to be low.

The sales of the Mate 50 series have been viewed as declining, which to a certain extent truly reflects Huawei’s distress after the supply was cut off.

2019 is Huawei’s peak year. The total global shipments of all-brand mobile phones reached 240 million units, ranking first in the domestic market and second in the global mobile phone market. However, in 2020, Huawei has lost the high-end market due to chip supply problems. In the whole year of 2020, Huawei’s mobile phone shipments totaled 189 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 21.5% and a market share of 14.6%.

With the advent of the 5G era, Huawei, as the inventor of 5G, was cut off from the baseband supply and forced to use only 4G chips, which directly affected the shipments of mobile phones. According to data from market research firm Omdia: In Q1 and Q2 of 2022, Huawei’s mobile phone shipments will be 5.6 million and 6.4 million, respectively, a sharp decline, but other manufacturers have not been able to fully make up for this market gap. Annual smartphone sales are about 30 million units.

The birth of the Mate 50 series can bring a boost to Huawei’s sales.

As one of the few high-end models from domestic mobile phone manufacturers, the Mate 50 series is no less popular in the market than the iPhone 14 series. On the day of the launch, the Mate 50 series had over 2.45 million reservations on Huawei’s official website.

In just two days, the full pre-sale of the Mate 50 series has been sold out, and many e-commerce platforms have shown that they are out of stock, and even high-end models equipped with Kunlun glass have been sold out.

Global markets are cold

2022 will be the most depressed year in the domestic mobile phone market. Not only Huawei has experienced a drop in shipments, but other mobile phone manufacturers have also suffered the same cold wave.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology released the “Analysis Report on the Operation of the Domestic Mobile Phone Market in June 2022”, showing that from January to June 2022, the total shipments of mobile phones in the domestic market totaled 136 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 21.7%; among which, the shipments of 5G mobile phones were 1.09%. 100 million units, down 14.5% year-on-year, accounting for 80.2% of mobile phone shipments in the same period.

There are many mobile phone brands with declining sales, such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other leading companies, all of which have a year-on-year decline of 20-30%. The shipments of the entire mobile phone market also reached the worst level in a decade.

Shipments have fallen, and mobile phone manufacturers generally use a large number of new models to stimulate sales. As a result, from January to June 2022, major mobile phone brands have launched a total of 201 new models, including 112 5G mobile phones.

The biggest reason for the cyclical recession of smartphones is the decline in market demand and the rise in raw material prices, and the increase in supply chain costs.

The biggest reason for the decline in market demand is that the innovative ability of mobile phones has declined. Every time a new phone is released, it is advocating for screens, images, and processor chips. The differentiation is weak, and there can only be “routine upgrades”, which are becoming more and more difficult to be perceived by consumers.

In addition, the internal volume of mobile phone hardware is too serious, and most flagship phones have excess performance, redundant and similar functions, resulting in an average replacement cycle of more than 31 months for users.

The weakening of consumers’ purchasing demand has caused a large number of mobile phone brands to start “stock revision” and “adjustment of expectations”. The entire smartphone market has entered the era of stock or even reduction.

On the other hand, the rise in the prices of raw materials for mobile phone parts and the rise in supply chain costs caused by the epidemic is also the main reason for the downturn in the mobile phone market.

The epidemic has had a huge impact on the supply chain of the mobile phone market. A large number of factories have been shut down, resulting in delays in delivery, and regional control has led to logistics obstructions.

Downstream mobile phone sales terminal outlets are also struggling to survive. In March this year, in order to reduce the impact of the epidemic on offline retail, Xiaomi began to subsidize offline stores five times, with a cumulative amount of 120 million yuan. But it is only a drop in the bucket. A large number of agents and offline stores of Guodai, provincial and land parcels have closed their stores on a large scale.

At the same time, Samsung, Sony and other companies have been controlling core components such as screens, memory, and mobile phone lenses. This is also a lack of long-term technology research and development, which has led to domestic mobile phone brands being constrained by the supply chain.

Taking the folding screen as an example, Samsung, as the only folding screen giant in the world, occupies more than 80% of the market share of the folding screen category. They will use the best technology for Samsung mobile phones first, and other manufacturers can only wait for product upgrades next year to eat the “leftovers” of the previous year.

At the same time, the bargaining power is all in the hands of Samsung, and domestic mobile phone brands can only be forced to buy core components at high prices and premiums.

The market needs a big change

In the final analysis, the current market winter is still the lack of innovation of domestic mobile phones, which leads to the failure of the impact on high-end, so that most of the gross profit is earned by Apple.

The SA data report of the statistical agency shows that in the Q2 quarter of 2022, Apple’s global sales reached 47.5 million units, which is the best Q2 quarter in ten years. This record-breaking record is very different from the 20-30% per capita drop of domestic mobile phone brands.

Not only the high-end can’t sell Apple, but it can’t even cut the price.

This year’s 618 e-commerce promotion, the total domestic sales of smartphones reached 14 million, the top three sales were Apple, Xiaomi and Honor, Apple’s sales accounted for nearly half, about 7 million; among them, ranked first The sales of the iPhone 13 reached 2.82 million units, while the second-placed Redmi K50 sold 340,000 units, a difference of nearly 8 times.

When the iPhone slightly changed the notch screen and made a special effect animation, countless people were excited and shouted. How long has it been since the domestic mobile phone has achieved a substantial breakthrough?

But it is undeniable that the two major brands of Apple and Huawei released new products at almost the same time, which has indeed brought enough attention to the mobile phone market. In the context of the overall decline in the domestic mobile phone market, I wonder if Huawei and Apple can bring some excitement.

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