Exploring Huawei’s Mate40 pre-order online "unable to order" offline "limited purchase"
Our reporter Zhao Xueyi, trainee reporter Lin Pingying
A few days ago, Huawei’s Mate40 flagship series of mobile phones was finally officially released.
This time, Huawei’s consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong presided over the release of four new mobile phones, namely Mate40, Pro, Pro+ and Porsche Design RS, all equipped with Kirin 9000 series chips.
Due to the US "containment" at the software and hardware level, the release of the new Huawei Mate series mobile phones has attracted attention from outsiders.
"Securities Daily" reporters visited and learned that the Mate40 series has been very popular since it was opened for pre-sales. Not only is it difficult to find a machine for online booking, but also offline stores remind you to comply with the "purchase restriction rules."
In addition, the quotations of older models on the wholesale market also rose slightly.
Yu Chengdong said at the press conference, "Huawei leads the industry in both communications technology and consumer technology. No matter how difficult the situation is, we are committed to continuing technological innovation and bringing the best technology and innovation to consumers."
There are physical stores that limit the purchase of "one person, one phone"
It is understood that Huawei’s newly released Mate40 series has 4 models, namely the 6.5-inch Mate40, 6.76-inch Pro, Pro+ and Porsche Design RS. All use flexible OLED screens with a refresh rate of 90Hz and support 66W wired fast charging.
Among them, the Pro/Pro+ and RS versions are equipped with Huawei's first 5nm process chip "Kirin 9000", and the Mate40 basic model is equipped with a slightly reduced Kirin 9000E chip.
Camera technology is also one of the highlights of the Mate40 series.
It is reported that Mate40 still uses Leica imaging system across the board, equipped with 50 million pixel main camera.
Among them, Pro+ is not only equipped with a 10x optical zoom, 20x hybrid zoom and maximum 100x digital zoom periscope lens, but also introduced the industry's first free-form surface lens, which can improve edge distortion.
Or because of both topicality and "hard power", the after-sales booking scene of Huawei Mate40 series is very popular.
From 0:00 on October 23 to before the press release on the 25th, reporters from Securities Daily tried to make reservations for Mate40 Pro 128G mobile phones on the official website, Tmall, JD.com and other channels, and entered the purchase page of the newly released reservation inventory. No appointment is successful.
"Securities Daily" reporters learned from Huawei's official website and Tmall flagship store customer service that the reason for the "second empty" of Mate40 series mobile phone inventory is that there are too many customers who snapped up the reservation, but the specific time cannot be determined.
"It's too hard to grab, but you can't fight it quickly. Every time you go in, it's gone." A consumer who has also tried many times without success told reporters.
On the afternoon of October 24, a reporter from the Securities Daily came to a large Huawei experience store in Futian, Shenzhen, and saw that there were already physical prototypes of the Mate40 series on display in the store, and the showcase was full of consumers who came to observe.
Due to the number of noisy people, the store staff had to use microphones to explain when introducing the features of the new machine and the offline reservation process to the crowd.
"We can make an appointment at 0 yuan in the store, and pick up the goods under real name." A clerk told a reporter from the Securities Daily that because the store is an experience store, consumers can choose to make an appointment for free and pay when the goods are picked up.
"According to the order of appointment, you can get it at the end of the month as soon as possible. If there are too many people, it may be the next batch of goods. There are a lot of people who have booked these two days, but there is no need to queue up for registration at the moment."
Subsequently, the reporter further inquired about the offline pre-order related matters, the clerk said that the current offline pre-order method has "restricted purchase requirements", a person can only book a mobile phone with real name, and when picking up the goods, he needs to go there and activate it on the spot.
Within a few minutes of conversation, a reporter from the Securities Daily saw that many consumers had come to queue for reservations.
In the dealer market, the Huaqiangbei mobile phone wholesale quotation obtained by a reporter from the Securities Daily shows that after the release of the Mate40 series, the price of the Mate30 series of mobile phones has risen slightly.
Take the Mate30 Pro 5G version of the black 128G mobile phone as an example, the same wholesaler, on October 22, the mobile phone quoted about 4990 yuan / unit; October 23rd the offer was 5015 yuan / unit.
"Lack of core" problem cannot be avoided
Behind the popularity of Huawei's new mobile phone bookings is the current "lack of core" problem that is difficult to circumvent.
With the US's relevant ban on Huawei, after September 15th, chip manufacturers such as TSMC will not be able to produce Kirin chips for Huawei.
Yu Chengdong once said that the Kirin 9000 chip on the Mate40 series this year may be the last generation of Kirin high-end chips.
When releasing the Mate40 series, Yu Chengdong said that the Kirin 9000 chip is the world's first 5G mobile phone SoC ("System on Chip" short for "System on Chip") with a 5nm process, integrating 15.3 billion transistors, which is more than Apple's A14 chip. 30% more.
Yu Chengdong said that Kirin 9000 integrates 8-core CPU and 24-core GPU, with superior computing speed, and the energy efficiency of CPU, NPU, and GPU is better than other similar products.
Zhou Xibing, a Huawei research expert and author of "Huawei Internationalization", is very optimistic about the sales expectations of the Mate40 series of mobile phones. He said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily: "First of all, Huawei's position in the high-end smartphone market is self-evident. This time the new product directly targets Apple, not Samsung, indicating that the company is very confident in the quality of mobile phones. In the consumer business, Huawei is currently only encountering bottlenecks in mobile phones equipped with high-end chips, while low-end and mid-range mobile phones are basically not affected. Influence; in addition, its '1+8+N' strategy will also be a good way to break through."
In terms of chips that are more affected, CITIC Securities Research believes that Huawei has stocked a large number of self-developed and externally-sourced chips before September 15, and it is expected to support use for one to two years, and does not rule out spin-offs and sub-brands. The new machine is shipped in batches and limited quantities, etc., to win longer inventory use time for the main brand.
Zhou Xibing believes that it is too early to assert that Kirin chips have become a "swan song". In addition to TSMC and other important suppliers that are constantly seeking US licenses, Huawei can also bypass the US by investing in Europe or China and establishing chip companies. Technology, completely solve the problem of chip foundry.
"But it is very difficult to achieve the latter. Huawei needs to combine production, education and research in multiple fields to solve the technical bottleneck problem of lithography machines through subversive innovation. This requires not only capital, talent and technology, but also an understanding of the market and industry. , A bold and forward-looking entrepreneur."
On October 23, Huawei released its latest operating results. In the first three quarters of this year, the company achieved sales revenue of 671.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.9% and a net profit margin of 8%.
(Securities Daily)