After Mate40, can other Chinese companies bravely take over?

  Our reporter Zhao Peng

  A few days after Apple’s iPhone 12 was launched, Huawei’s flagship Mate 40 also officially debuted on the evening of the 22nd.

The starting price of Mate40 in overseas markets is 899 euros, which is equivalent to more than 7000 yuan, which is 100 euros higher than that of Mate30, which is much higher than the 6000 yuan starting price of iPhone12.

Although the domestic price has not yet been announced, consumer enthusiasm has made Mate40 online pre-sales difficult to find.

  However, the chip inventory is declining after the sanctions, and Mate40 may become Huawei's last high-end flagship machine.

Consumers are rushing to order the strongest domestic mobile phone

  "Mate40 is equipped with the strongest 5-nanometer mobile phone chip-Kirin 9000 SoC, integrated 15.3 billion transistors, 30% more than Apple's A14 chip." Huawei Consumer Business CEO Yu Chengdong disclosed that Kirin 9000 also uses a 24-core GPU , These factors make mobile phone download speeds twice as fast as other 5G mobile phones.

Mate40 also uses a 6.76-inch curved screen, a 50-megapixel camera that supports 4K shooting, and luxurious configurations such as 66-watt super fast charging.

  “Ten years ago, Huawei’s global mobile phone users were only 1 million. Today, Huawei’s device connections worldwide have exceeded 1 billion, of which 700 million are smartphones.” Yu Chengdong said moved, “Huawei is now in a very difficult time, but we The vision and hope for success should not be obliterated, and we will continue to move forward courageously."

  Consumers' enthusiasm for Mate40 is not lost to iPhone12.

Due to a large number of consumers rushing to place orders, the reservation option for paying a deposit of 100 yuan at the official flagship store of JD.com has turned gray, and the official flagship store of Suning also indicated that this product has been removed.

Huawei cuts production, Apple and Samsung want to grab share

  Without the suppression of the United States, Huawei's mobile phone sales this year was expected to surpass Samsung to take the world's first place.

However, in the face of the crisis of chip supply, the mid-to-high-end mobile phone market is facing a reshuffle, and Huawei has to fight for survival.

  "Current news from various sources shows that Huawei's mobile phone chip reserve is expected to last until next year." Zhang Jiaxin, PhD from the School of Information and Communication Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told reporters.

  Since Huawei's Kirin chip has been temporarily unable to continue production after September 15, the Kirin 9000 SoC chip unveiled this time may be the last generation of Kirin high-end chips.

  Some institutions predict that Huawei’s mobile phone sales will be around 190 million units this year, and next year, due to the declining chip inventory, its mobile phone production capacity may drop by about 70%, and shipments are estimated to be only more than 50 million units.

  Looking ahead to the mobile phone market in 2021, Huawei’s production reduction is basically a foregone conclusion. Apple has released the 5G version of the iPhone 12 series, while Samsung has increased its global mobile phone shipments to 300 million units or an increase of 15%, all intending to seize Huawei’s vacated share.

Cross-border cooperation Chinese enterprises accelerate upward breakthrough

  IDC China recently released China's mid-to-high-end mobile phone market share of more than US$600 in the first half of the year, showing that Huawei and Apple both accounted for 44%, Xiaomi only accounted for 4%, and OPPO and Samsung only slightly exceeded 2%.

  In the most lucrative mid-to-high-end mobile phone market, if Huawei is trapped, can other Chinese companies catch up and fill the gap?

  "The Xiaomi Mi 10 series launched by Xiaomi this year is positioned at a level above 5,000 yuan, and the OPPO series of OnePlus phones are also positioned at the high end, and they have gained relatively good reputation." Communications industry expert Xiang Ligang said, "Assuming the most extreme situation Huawei’s future mobile phone production will encounter difficulties. As the world’s top 6 mobile phone companies, Ov (OPPO and vivo) and Xiaomi will never sit back and watch the outflow of mid-to-high-end markets at home and abroad, and will inevitably make breakthroughs in concurrency."

  Before being sanctioned, Huawei was in a period of strong growth in the international market. Last year, its global mobile phone market share rose to second place.

Zeng Jianqiu, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, believes that “following Huawei’s sanctions will be reduced. In the future, Huawei will still have the capital to break hands with Apple, and the competition between the two will continue.”

  Zhang Jiaxin also said that at present, the government and enterprises are taking multiple measures to support the layout of the chip industry, strive for international cooperation and domestic cross-industry and cross-enterprise cooperation, and strive to build a more complete communication and mobile phone industry ecology. "Chinese mobile phone companies continue to The momentum of mid-to-high-end development and going global will not be curbed."

  Recently, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei also intensively visited a series of domestic universities such as Fudan University to strengthen the integration of industry, university and research.

Universities such as Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Huawei have also taken measures such as co-construction and joint research and development of related technologies. Domestic breakthroughs in production, education and research are speeding up.

  Hard-core technologies such as Kirin chips, Hongmeng operating system, Da Vinci architecture processor, artificial intelligence, camera, charging, and even AI air operation. Huawei's achievements depend on technological research and development.

  Xiang Ligang said that in 2019, Huawei’s research and development expenses were as high as 131.7 billion yuan, while Ov and Xiaomi’s current annual research and development expenses are hovering around 10 billion yuan. If Ov and Xiaomi want to catch up in the mid-to-high-end market, they should increase their R&D investment as soon as possible. Efficiency is undoubtedly a "hard target" that must be reached.