Author｜Xue Xingxing

Editor｜Wang Bin

Cover｜Huawei

The day after Tim Cook's third visit to China this year (November 26), Huawei launched its latest flagship Mate 70 series in Shenzhen.

Similar to last year, Huawei did not mention much about chip performance, and Yu Chengdong only emphasized that the overall performance of the new phones was 40% better than the previous generation. However, this is no longer the main focus of consumers; just the fact that Huawei is re-entering the mobile phone market is enough to prompt consumers to place orders.

'Copying will lead to no future. Huawei Mate has always been imitated but never surpassed. The only thing that can surpass Mate is Huawei Mate itself.' Yu Chengdong said at the beginning of yesterday's press conference. This can be seen as Yu Chengdong's response to Huawei's absence from the Chinese high-end mobile phone market in the past few years.

According to data provided by IDC, Huawei has captured over 30% of the high-end mobile phone market (above US$600) in China in the first three quarters of this year. Analysts are generally optimistic that this share will continue to increase, and Apple will face greater pressure domestically. Apple currently accounts for about 52% of the high-end mobile phone market, a decline of about 10 percentage points from last year, while Huawei has increased by about 10 percentage points from last year.

The iPhone 16 series is the most upgraded generation in the past few years, but the biggest upgrade, Apple Intelligence, is still unable to be implemented in China. This year, the iPhone 16 series started price reductions and promotions earlier than in previous years. Overseas media have continuously published commentary articles discussing why Chinese people have lost interest in iPhones. There are many reasons, but the conclusion seems to be the same: 'Apple's golden era in China has ended,' as quoted by The New York Times from an interviewee.

Tim Cook visited China the day before the launch of the Huawei Mate 70 series. This was his third visit this year and approximately his 21st visit in history.

Unlike the confrontation in September, this 'collision' with Huawei seems to be coincidental. Cook's visit to China this time was to attend the 2nd China International Supply Chain Promotion Expo (Chain Expo).

This was Cook's first time attending the Chain Expo, and he emphasized the importance of Chinese partners in media interviews, stating, 'Without Chinese partners, Apple would not have achieved today's success.' The trending topic on Weibo was, 'Cook said without China, there would be no Apple today.'

Apple has been an exhibitor at the Chain Expo since last year. Multiple media reports emphasized that the most eye-catching slogan on Apple's booth was:

'Of Apple's 200 major suppliers, 151 are based in China.'

01｜Flying High and Those Four Words

Since last year, Yu Chengdong has stopped using the iconic slogan 'far ahead' in public. At this year's Huawei Mate event, he used 'flying high' to describe Huawei's mobile phone leadership.

Just like the unmentioned chips in the Huawei Mate 70, people are tacitly aware of these four words. After Yu Chengdong took the stage, people kept shouting 'far ahead' or simply 'those four words' from the audience, and their voices were loud enough to be picked up by the live stream. 'The Mate 70 definitely lives up to those four words,' Yu Chengdong said on stage, responding to the enthusiasm of the audience.

This year's Huawei Mate 70 series is similar to previous years, with a total of four versions priced from 5,499 yuan to 9,499 yuan. The Mate 70 RS Masterpiece and foldable Mate X6 are priced up to 12,999 yuan and 16,999 yuan, respectively. The main sales model, the Mate 70 Pro series, is priced almost the same as the iPhone 16 Pro series.

Huawei Mate 70 Pro+

Similar to Apple, Huawei is perhaps the only mobile phone manufacturer that does not need to emphasize mobile phone specifications excessively during press conferences. Yu Chengdong introduced the Mate 70 series in about half an hour, which can be considered brief compared to many dazzling domestic flagship mobile phone launches.

The confidence may stem from brand influence. In the past few years, Huawei's Mate series has been almost the only domestic flagship mobile phone that can compete with the iPhone in the domestic market. Even though many domestic mobile phone manufacturers have made efforts to enter the high-end market, none have achieved the same dominance as Huawei's Mate series.

In 2020, when the Huawei Mate 40 series was launched, Huawei had been the top mobile phone market share holder in China for three consecutive years. Apple's market share in China that year was 10%, ranking fifth. Two years later, Apple's market share rebounded to 22%. In October of that year, Apple reported in its fiscal year report ending in September 2022 that revenue from Greater China reached a record high of US$74 billion. Apple has not reached that figure in the following two years.

The most significant decline occurred in fiscal year 2024, when Apple's revenue from Greater China fell to US$67 billion, the only region globally to experience a decline. In August last year, Huawei quietly launched the Mate 60 series on its official website, announcing its return to the mobile phone market.

Apple's 2024 Fiscal Year Financial Report

By the third quarter of this year, according to Canalys data, Huawei had captured 16% of the domestic mobile phone market share, ranking second. Apple's shipments declined by 6%, regaining the fifth position, partly due to larger price reductions and promotions during the summer vacation back-to-school season and the 618 shopping festival.

However, compared to last year, Huawei's Mate series was launched three months later this year, and outside observers predict that this will affect Huawei's sales. In the first half of this year, after the heat of the Huawei Mate 60 series subsided, the subsequently released Pura 70 series failed to replicate the phenomenon of being hard to find in stores, and price reductions and promotions began in the middle of the year.

Analysts predict that the Mate 70 will continue the success of the Mate series, with shipments expected to exceed 10 million units over its lifecycle. Some previous reports stated that Huawei had asked its supply chain to increase production capacity, and it is said that the initial stock of the Mate 70 series has increased by at least one-third compared to the Mate 60 series.

02｜HarmonyOS and Apple Intelligence

Perhaps because a separate HarmonyOS NEXT conference was held previously, this Huawei Mate conference barely mentioned anything related to the operating system. However, the system is one of the most significant changes in this generation of Huawei Mate series.

Huawei officially launched its self-developed operating system HarmonyOS in 2019, but previous generations still retained Android code and were compatible with Android applications. This year, Huawei began internal testing of the native HarmonyOS NEXT, which is no longer compatible with Android applications and starts to establish a closed application ecosystem similar to Apple's, claiming to have become the world's third-largest mobile operating system. In the first quarter of this year, HarmonyOS surpassed iOS to become the second-largest mobile operating system in China.

HarmonyOS NEXT

However, the current native HarmonyOS is still in its early stages of development. Most of the applications that have been hastily launched have had many functions castrated compared to other systems, and some national-level applications such as WeChat are still in the testing phase. According to previous statements by Huawei at conferences, Huawei currently has 15,000 native applications and meta-services completed, and they believe that 100,000 applications are needed to meet consumer demand.

This may be why the latest Mate 70 series still offers two system versions. Yu Chengdong emphasized at the conference that the Mate 70 series can be 'upgraded immediately' to HarmonyOS NEXT, but it still ships with the compatible Android HarmonyOS 4.3 version.

Yu Chengdong said that there are now a large number of application iterations every month, week, and even day, and it is expected that the experience of the native HarmonyOS application ecosystem will be more mature and complete in two to three months. He emphasized that all mobile phones and tablets launched by Huawei next year will be equipped with native HarmonyOS.

In other words, many of the powerful AI intelligence and privacy protection functions demonstrated by Huawei at the conference still need to be experienced in the native HarmonyOS system, and a more complete system will not be available until next year.

This gives Apple some breathing room for Apple Intelligence, which has not yet been implemented domestically. In the past two months, among the flagship mobile phone products concentrated released by domestic mobile phone manufacturers, AI has become the most important aspect. Some manufacturers, such as OPPO, have even bluntly stated their intention to steal iPhone users.

Apple is at a critical juncture of fully transforming its product line to AI, for which they are willing to downgrade higher performance and memory to base models, such as equipping the iPhone 16 base model with the latest A17 chip and upgrading the starting memory of the Mac product line from 8GB to 16GB. Cook believes that the arrival of Apple Intelligence will attract more iPhone users to upgrade.

However, this attractiveness has not yet taken effect domestically. Cook's second visit to China this year coincided with Apple's September event, and domestic media were particularly concerned about the progress of Apple Intelligence's implementation in China. He did not give a definitive answer but only stated that they were working hard to push it forward.

Cook's second visit to China in October with singer Lexie Liu

The Financial Times reported that Apple Intelligence still faces challenges in entering China and that they have been in contact with many domestic manufacturers, including Baidu, ByteDance, and Kimi. Samik Chatterjee, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, said that although Apple may cooperate with Baidu or other companies to implement Apple Intelligence, it will not be fully implemented until the second half of 2025 or later.

Cook is still showcasing his diplomatic skills. He has visited China approximately 21 times in the past decade, making him one of the most frequent visitors among multinational CEOs.

Starting this year, his visits to China have become more frequent, with three visits already this year. Besides his annual routine of visiting stores, emphasizing education, and meeting developers, he has started to emphasize the importance of the Chinese supply chain more frequently, frequently showing goodwill towards the country – previously, Apple had attempted to reduce its dependence on the Chinese supply chain.