Huawei's rush to purchase begins again.

On November 20, Yu Chengdong announced on Weibo that the "powerhouse combination! New foldable flagship Huawei Mate X6" will be officially launched at the Huawei Mate Brand Ceremony on November 26.

This will also be Huawei's final smartphone release of 2024. At 12:08 on the same day, Huawei Mate X6 officially opened for reservations, and by 18:23 that day, the number of reservations for this new product on the Huawei Mall had exceeded 420,000.

Two days earlier, Huawei announced the pre-sale of the Mate 70 series, and by November 20, the number of reservations on Huawei's official mall had exceeded 2.6 million.

Referring to last year's Mate 60 and this year's new Huawei releases such as the Pocket 2, nova Flip, and Mate XT foldable phones, the Mate X6 and Mate 70 series will bring a satisfying conclusion to Huawei's smartphone year in 2024, and even to the entire domestic smartphone industry.

Foldable giants: covering all price ranges

Through the teaser video posted on Huawei's Weibo account, Huawei's foldable phones have come a long way since the global launch of the world's first 5G foldable phone, the Huawei Mate X, in 2019.

The first Mate X set an astonishing sales record on its launch day and was hailed as the "beginning of the foldable era." Online data also shows that the Mate X, which was launched in the Chinese market on November 15, 2019, sold 100,000 units per month in its early days after launch.

In the following years, Huawei's Mate foldable series continued to evolve, addressing issues such as bulkiness, creases, durability, water resistance, battery life, performance, and stylish design.

Mate X2, Mate Xs 2, Mate X3, and Mate X5 were launched in 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively, followed by the global launch of the world's first commercially available tri-fold Mate XT Masterpiece in 2024, and the upcoming Mate X6.

According to BCI Communications Research statistics, since 2020, Huawei has held an average annual market share of 50.74% in the foldable phone market, dominating half of the foldable market. As of the third quarter of 2024, Huawei continued to lead the foldable phone market in sales.

In September, Huawei launched the Masterpiece Mate XT, dubbed the new generation of "electronic Moutai," which once again led the global smartphone market with its unique design and powerful features. As the world's first commercially available tri-fold phone, it boasts four core features: "Extraordinary Design," "Extraordinary Experience," "Extraordinary Technology," and "Extraordinary Imaging."

With its strong product capabilities and brand advantages, all models of the Mate XT sold out instantly on its launch day. These achievements are also reflected in its performance, with Huawei's foldable phone sales increasing by 97% year-on-year in the third quarter, maintaining its industry-leading growth trend.

However, it is evident that the Masterpiece Mate XT, priced above 19,999 yuan, has an economic threshold for consumers. Its sales will not explode like ordinary high-volume models but will steadily penetrate core consumer segments.

In contrast, based on available information, the pre-sold Mate X6 is a dual-fold phone with a broader target audience. Although the product pricing has not been publicly disclosed, it is reasonable to infer that this new product will fill the supply gap in the price range below 20,000 yuan, becoming Huawei's next blockbuster hit.

According to market research firm CINNO Research, foldable phone sales in the Chinese market reached 3.54 million units in the third quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 79% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 35%. Cumulative sales for the first three quarters reached 8.52 million units, a year-on-year increase of 101%, doubling the market penetration rate to 4.1%, nearly doubling from 2.2% in the same period last year.

It is evident that the incremental market for foldable phones in China is significant, and the growth rate continues to accelerate.

The strongest self-controllable smartphone ever is coming

The Mate 70 series is also worth anticipating.

Previously, Huawei Executive Director Yu Chengdong stated that the Mate 70 series is the "most powerful Mate ever."

It is understood that the Huawei Mate 70 series will be equipped with the new generation of cutting-edge Kirin chip and will be the first to come with the native HarmonyOS (HarmonyOS NE), which is the core value of this new product.

Despite China being the world's largest mobile phone manufacturing country, it has long been dominated by overseas products in terms of software related to operation security, especially the core mobile operating system.

Even Huawei's HarmonyOS released before 2024 was not fully self-controllable. Due to the use of some AOSP open-source code in its system base, it had to be compatible with some Android applications.

This situation only changed with the official release of Huawei's native HarmonyOS on October 22, 2024.

According to the release materials on that day, the native HarmonyOS achieves full in-house development of its system base, no longer based on the Unix and Linux kernels. Instead, it creates a true "Harmony kernel," significantly improving system fluidity, performance, and security features.

This is China's first domestically produced mobile operating system and the world's third-largest mobile operating system after Apple's iOS and Android.

It is conceivable that the Mate 70 series, equipped with the native HarmonyOS, represents that domestic smartphones now truly have their programming languages, graphics engines, multimedia engines, AI models, etc.

Meanwhile, the Mate 70 will also be an AI phone. According to the promotional video released by Huawei, the Mate 70 series will carry the label "Mate has real AI," achieving technological breakthroughs in multiple AI functions.

Based on labels such as foldable design, self-security, and AI, the market is boldly predicting that Huawei's final new product launch event of 2024 will spark a new wave of rush purchases and discussions.

In fact, the capital market has already given a clear response to this expectation.

On November 19, Tonghuashun launched the Huawei Mobile A-share Index and corresponding sector on its APP. As of the close on November 20, the index had risen 7.35% in two days, with share prices of several Huawei suppliers already listed on the A-share market, such as Daheng Technology and Guangxin Materials, surging by more than 20%.

Huawei's strong return to new heights

After its high-profile return last year, Huawei has been accelerating its efforts to "reclaim" what it once had over the past year.

According to Canalys data, Huawei shipped 10.8 million smartphones in China in the third quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 24%. Among them, the Pura70 series has sold over 6.5 million units from its April launch to mid-October.

At the same time, due to the high proportion of high-end models in the Mate and Pura series, their average wholesale price and wholesale revenue reached record highs in the second quarter.

Benefiting from this, Huawei Holdings achieved sales revenue of 417.5 billion Chinese yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 34.3%, with a net profit margin of 13.2%. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-on-year growth since Huawei's return. Part of this growth can also be attributed to the progress of its smart car and Internet of Everything ecosystem businesses.

Meanwhile, its market share has continued to rise. According to IDC data, Huawei ranked third in China with a 15.3% market share in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 3.5 percentage points. Despite having fewer new products, it ranked first in the 4,000-8,000 yuan market segment.

In contrast, Apple's mobile phone market share decreased by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 15.6%, with shipments falling by 2.6% year-on-year.

Looking ahead, as Huawei further improves its independent ecosystem, will its development ceiling remain limited to China? This is unknown, but Huawei's pioneering spirit determines that it will always strive to surpass external expectations, just like the groundbreaking Mate series.