Source | Bohu Finance (bohuFN)

Author | All too well

The Honor Robot Phone launch event has finally arrived.

This is the world's first mass-produced smartphone with a built-in mechanical gimbal, representing a rare innovation in the smartphone industry in recent years.

Although not cheap, its starting price of 9,999 yuan is actually lower than market expectations.

The buzz seems promising, with Honor's latest data revealing that pre-orders surpassed 400,000 units on the evening of the launch event.

However, what draws my attention more is why Honor chose to release the Robot Phone and what this world's first robotic smartphone signifies for the company.

01 Smartphone makers can't rely solely on smartphones

Over the past decade, Chinese smartphone makers have rapidly risen by relying on a proven formula: better screens, stronger imaging capabilities, faster chips, and lower prices.

Hardware upgrades drove replacement demand, while economies of scale reduced costs.

But now, this methodology is losing its effectiveness.

On one hand, consumer replacement cycles continue to lengthen. By 2026, the average replacement cycle for Chinese consumers had reached 42 months, nearly double that of five years prior; the global average cycle had also extended to 47 months. In other words, smartphones are transitioning from fast-moving consumer electronics to durable consumer goods.

On the other hand, smartphone makers face mounting cost pressures. Core components such as memory chips, advanced manufacturing processes, and imaging sensors continue to rise in price, driving up production costs. However, consumer tolerance for price hikes has not increased proportionally.

Products are becoming more expensive, yet users' willingness to upgrade their phones is declining. This chill is likely felt deeply by most smartphone makers.

Domestically, Huawei and Apple continue to grow by leveraging their brand and high-end market advantages, while other makers—including Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo—have experienced varying degrees of decline. In Q2 2026, Honor saw a 9.5% year-over-year decline, with a market share of 11.3%, ranking sixth.

As a result, smartphone makers are seeking new growth avenues.

Xiaomi has entered the automotive industry; Huawei has expanded from smartphones to the HarmonyOS ecosystem and intelligent vehicles; OPPO has focused on tablets, earphones, and smart wearables; while vivo has ventured into robotics and small-screen premium smartphones.

Honor's answer is the AI terminal ecosystem.

In 2025, Li Jian made his first public appearance as Honor's CEO, unveiling the "Alpha Strategy" and announcing Honor's transition from a smartphone manufacturer to an AI terminal ecosystem company. Simultaneously, the company plans to invest over $10 billion in AI-related initiatives over the next five years.

Robot Phone is a highly representative product in this transformation.

02 After Huawei's return, Honor defines itself through AI

In fact, Honor did not begin its AI layout (AI layout means AI strategy or AI layout, but since we need to retain HTML and not translate specific terms unless they're standard English, I'll keep it as context implies strategic AI efforts) in 2025.

From 2021 to 2022, while most smartphone makers were competing on chips, imaging, screens, and foldable displays, Honor chose a different path: reconstructing its smartphone operating system with AI.

This decision stemmed from Honor's most pragmatic choice at the time. Having just become independent from Huawei, Honor lost its original brand advantages, supply chain synergies, and channel resources, making it difficult to engage in costly hardware competition like established players. AI offered a relatively lower-cost path that could directly transform user experience. Through MagicOS, Honor began exploring ways for smartphones to understand user needs and proactively provide services.

Later, scenarios like "AI-powered milk tea ordering" gained attention, actually serving as a concentrated expression of Honor's years of AI capability accumulation.

However, the issue lies in the fact that first-mover advantage does not equate to permanent dominance. AI has evolved from a differentiating capability into an industry standard.

Today, nearly all smartphone makers are promoting AI phones. During launch events, brands showcase capabilities like large model integration, edge-cloud collaboration, intelligent agent scheduling, and multimodal understanding. Yet, for most users, the high-frequency applications remain AI photo editing, translation, and search. In other words, AI has not yet delivered revolutionary experiences that drive consumer upgrades.

More importantly, AI capabilities are being rapidly replicated. An AI feature first introduced by one brand, such as AI object removal or image expansion, quickly appears on other phones through system updates. As more terminal makers integrate large models like DeepSeek, Tongyi Qianwen, and Doubao, the gap in underlying model capabilities continues to narrow.

AI innovation at the software level alone can no longer form a genuine competitive advantage. For Honor, this shift brings even greater pressure.

In 2020, Honor became independent from Huawei. Without Huawei's brand, supply chain, and channel support, Honor's market share once plummeted to 3%, becoming a true "Others" player. Subsequently, Honor regained its position in the first tier by leveraging the Magic series, a premium strategy, and the "Huawei alternative" label. In Q1 2024, Honor topped China's smartphone market with a 17.1% share.

But this spotlight did not last long. After a 12.6% year-over-year decline in full-year 2025 shipments, Honor failed to halt its decline, with its market share dropping to 11.3% again in Q2 2026.

If Honor still carried the "Huawei alternative" label immediately after its independence, then after Huawei's return, Honor must now answer a fundamental question: Who is Honor? This is Honor's greatest anxiety and the reason behind its continuous emphasis on AI strategy.

03 Why is Robot Phone important?

From a product perspective, Robot Phone is indeed innovative.

The mechanical gimbal is a major highlight of this device. By redesigning its internal architecture, Honor achieved miniaturization and lightweighting of the mechanical structure within the limited space of a smartphone body, reducing the overall structure volume by 65% and using a dedicated motor weighing just 2.6 grams. Meanwhile, Robot Phone is powered by the Agentic OS kernel, supporting a system-level intelligent agent architecture.

Some scenarios demonstrated during the launch event were quite intriguing. Robot Phone can move to music, recognize human emotions, describe its surroundings, and proactively respond when it determines the user needs assistance.

Additionally, Honor collaborated with professional filmmaking equipment manufacturer ARRI to introduce the world's first smartphone supporting ARRI Log3, featuring cinematic-grade color profiles that allow professional users to perform color grading in post-production.

Currently, the market generally recognizes Honor's spirit of innovation, but questions remain about the phone's actual sales performance.

On one hand, its starting price of nearly 10,000 yuan raises doubts about whether ordinary consumers will accept such a high premium for a mechanical gimbal. On the other hand, in the professional imaging segment, DJI and Insta360 already offer mature product lines with average prices around 4,000 yuan.

Thus, at least at this stage, Robot Phone appears more as a showcase of technological capabilities, which is precisely its significance.

Over the past few years, Honor has faced a persistent issue: competitive products but a lack of brand distinctiveness. This gap is even more pronounced in the high-end market. For example, market rumors suggest that since its October 2025 launch, the Honor Magic 8 series has sold nearly 1.5 million units; in contrast, media reports indicate that the Huawei Mate 80 series sold nearly 7.8 million units within just eight months of release.

This discrepancy stems not only from product differences. Huawei has Kirin and HarmonyOS, Xiaomi offers cost-effectiveness and chip self-research, while vivo and OPPO excel in imaging. However, Honor has long lacked a brand label that consumers can quickly remember.

Honor's leap is substantial—not only venturing into AI but also embodied intelligent robots. From dominating the robotics half-marathon to the Robot Phone launch, Honor's AI narrative continues to expand. They aim to become China's first genuine "AI terminal ecosystem" company, exploring a collaborative model between "smartphone AI agents and robotic terminals."

However, while labeling is easy, establishing competitive barriers is difficult. AI hardware can generate attention and enhance brand image, but there is still a long road ahead before it translates into stable revenue and profits.

More importantly, competitors in the AI era may no longer be limited to other smartphone makers. From AI glasses to robots, from smart wearables to various new terminal types, more companies are vying for the next generation of entry points.

For Honor, the sales volume of Robot Phone matters less than whether AI can truly become its competitive barrier.

Reference Sources:

1. Eqiuo: From "Huawei Alternative" to Falling Out of the Top Five: Where Did Honor Go Wrong?

2. Baobian: Can Honor's Bet on Robot Phone Stage a Comeback?

3. Jiemag: 600 Days After Honor's Leadership Change, Has Li Jian Met Expectations?

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