"Navigating with a New Map to a New Land"

By Chen Dengxin

Edited by Li Jinlin

Typeset by Annalee

Honor once again stands at the forefront of the global stage.

On March 2, 2025, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, Honor officially unveiled the Honor Alpha Strategy (HONOR ALPHA PLAN), marking its transformative shift from a smartphone manufacturer to a globally leading AI terminal ecosystem company, capturing the world's attention.

Li Jian, CEO of Honor, remarked, "The AI revolution will redefine the terminal industry, profoundly transforming our productivity, society, and culture in unprecedented ways."

This represents a pivotal moment in Honor's innovative journey.

Amidst the AI revolution, how smartphone manufacturers can seize the opportunities of the times has been a topic of heated discussion. Now, Honor has taken the lead, pointing the industry in a new direction: reshaping the global AI terminal ecosystem with a genuinely open strategy.

AI: The Foundation of Honor

The Mobile World Congress has always been a harbinger of industry innovation.

At this year's conference, AI was the central theme, with Chinese companies showcasing their prowess in succession. Among them, Honor's AI innovations and products garnered widespread recognition.

Reuters stated, "Honor's AI technology applications extend beyond smartphones, gradually empowering products such as personal computers, tablets, and wearable devices."

This is evident from the fact that Honor won over 50 media awards in a single instance.

For example, TechRadar awarded the Honor Watch 5 Ultra as the "Best Smartwatch," praising its exceptional value for money, excellent system compatibility, and impressive battery life.

Another instance is Tom's Guide, which highly commended the Honor Pad V9, praising its vibrant screen display, long battery life, and AI-integrated user interface, making it comparable to the Apple iPad.

Furthermore, Honor's innovative capabilities amazed King Felipe VI of Spain. He displayed keen interest in Honor's AI face-swapping detection technology, particularly its precise identification capabilities for AI deepfakes. "This technology can effectively help users resist such threats and safeguard cyberspace security."

King Felipe VI of Spain experiencing Honor's AI face-swapping detection technology at the Honor booth

It is clear that Honor shone brightly in Barcelona, demonstrating the hard power of Chinese technology.

This is because AI has always been the cornerstone of Honor.

As early as 2016, Honor launched the world's first AI smartphone, the Honor Magic, becoming one of the first terminal enterprises to embrace AI. Since then, it has consistently increased its investment and continuously promoted AI to reshape traditional terminals.

Particularly in 2024, Honor released MagicOS 9.0, the industry's first personalized AI operating system for all scenarios that integrates cross-application open ecosystem agents, ushering terminals into the "AI Agent Era."

Public information shows that as of 2024, Honor's cumulative R&D expenses for AI had reached 10 billion yuan, with over 2,100 AI patents and 2,100 related AI patent achievements, enabling the recognition of 600 types of AI intentions.

Therefore, it is only natural for Honor to emerge as an AI evangelist in the industry.

Even Apple has followed Honor's lead in the AI field: Apple's Apple Intelligence bears a striking resemblance to the "four-layer AI architecture" previously proposed by Honor.

By breaking the boundaries of human-computer interaction, Honor has successfully opened a new chapter in AI terminals, earning high praise from consumers.

According to a Canalys report, Honor ranked as the world's fifth-largest AI smartphone vendor in 2024, with its AI smartphones having the second-highest average selling price globally, trailing only Samsung.

Redefining the Terminal Value Framework

Facing the AI wave, although major global smartphone manufacturers have entered the fray, as a mature industry, most industry players still grapple with the inertia of self-centeredness and boundary drawing.

As the CEO of Honor, Li Jian keenly observed that as AI technology evolves rapidly, the industry's development bottlenecks are becoming increasingly apparent. Individual efforts are no longer sufficient; collaboration is the only way forward. "I call on the industry and ecological partners to unite and jointly embrace the challenges and opportunities brought about by AI."

Li Jian, CEO of Honor

Due to different starting points and focuses, openness and closedness have always been the two main paths of global technological development, with both sides having their adherents over the years.

The smartphone sector is a prime example.

Android took an open route and gained a higher market share, while Apple took a closed route and captured higher industry profits. It is difficult to ascertain which approach is superior.

The issue is that closedness often represents exclusivity and confrontation, which in a sense becomes a "stumbling block" for innovation, not only increasing the difficulty of breaking through technological barriers but also hindering the popularization of technology for the benefit of all.

This drawback is exacerbated in the AI era.

The open approach of DeepSeek achieves maximum effects with minimal resources, breaking through computational power barriers. More importantly, it stimulates the prosperity of AI applications, bringing AI popularization from dream to reality.

This means that in this passionate AI era, openness equates to productivity. Whoever masters advanced productivity can break the shackles of innovation and possess undisputed industry leadership.

Against this backdrop, Honor has revamped its strategy, resonating with the pulse of the times.

In Honor's view, the underlying logic of openness is people-oriented, and technological progress serves humanity, making the two naturally aligned.

Guided by the people-oriented innovation concept and leveraging the Honor Alpha Strategy as a fulcrum, Honor has decided to harness the new potential of openness, break down the boundaries of technological innovation, and thereby maximize the release of human potential.

Specifically, the Honor Alpha Strategy comprises three steps: in the AI Agent Era, open up the boundaries of technology, create truly intelligent smartphones, and jointly forge a new paradigm for AI terminals;

in the Physical AI Era, open up the boundaries of the industry, build an intelligent ecosystem, and jointly forge a new paradigm for AI ecosystems;

and in the AGI Era, open up the boundaries of human potential, embrace an intelligent world, and jointly forge a new paradigm for human civilization.

These three steps are interconnected, not only showcasing the forward-looking AI strategic vision of Li Jian, CEO of Honor, but also transforming Honor's AI foundation into ecological potential, blazing a new trail for transforming productivity. "If we envision the AI ecosystem as a towering tree, then AI terminals are the trunk of this tree. Honor's core value lies in integrating all AI elements and transforming them into innovative experiences accessible to consumers."

In essence, Honor is redefining the new value framework of AI terminals.

That is, within the AI terminal ecosystem, Honor serves as both the central nervous system that orchestrates computing power, data, scenarios, services, and other resources, and a super traffic entrance for user engagement.

In this manner, Honor has found the missing piece to combine a people-oriented philosophy with technology and plans to invest over $10 billion in the next five years to provide a solid material foundation for the Honor Alpha Strategy.

CCS Insights Commentary on the Honor Alpha Strategy

Ben Wood, Chief Analyst at CCS Insights, a globally renowned analysis agency, pointed out that with the Alpha Strategy, Honor is constructing a cross-terminal open ecosystem, further promoting the intelligent transition of terminal devices, and demonstrating a strategic layout that surpasses similar Chinese vendors.

A global leader in an open AI terminal ecosystem is emerging.

Executing the New Strategy

To effectively implement the Honor Alpha Strategy, Honor has actively deployed through innovative technologies and products.

First, it globally pioneered the personal AI agent based on GUI, revolutionizing human-computer interaction.

Large models are the cornerstone of AI agents, and AI agents are the key nodes for communication between the digital world and the physical world, making them essential for all players.

Honor globally pioneered the personal AI agent based on GUI (Graphical User Interface), providing users with rich intelligent experiences through personalized interaction methods, in collaboration with partners.

In an on-site demonstration, when a user requested, "After the event, book a restaurant that serves local specialty dishes for 4 people, within a half-hour drive, and with high reviews," the Honor AI Agent deeply understood the user's needs and recommended a restaurant serving Spanish cuisine within 10 to 15 kilometers, with a reservation at 7:30 PM.

"Booking a restaurant with one sentence" not only highlights the complete business closed loop of Honor's open ecosystem but also aligns with the goal of "creating a truly intelligent smartphone."

Second, it released the industry's first end-cloud AI model collaboration solution, defining a new paradigm for intelligent imaging.

Large models pursue "fast response on the end side and strong computing power on the cloud side," requiring layouts on both ends. Honor has deeply cultivated the end side, emphasizing privacy protection, and taking a safer and more reliable AI empowerment route.

For more complex problems, they are handed over to cloud-side partners for processing, and data is desensitized and encrypted before uploading to the cloud and deleted promptly after use, achieving the best of both worlds.

Currently, Honor's end-cloud collaboration has taken a significant step forward.

AiMAGE, a new imaging technology brand, is the industry's first solution for end-cloud AI model collaboration: the end-side model has a parameter scale of 1.3 billion, which can improve clarity by 50% and enhance portrait shooting effects; the cloud-side model has a parameter scale of 12.4 billion, significantly enhancing the image quality of long-distance shots, capable of AI-powered high-magnification enlargement of details up to 20 miles away, making the captured images clearly visible on the smartphone screen.

Behind the new paradigm of end-cloud collaboration lies the goal of "building an intelligent ecosystem," which is the precise implementation of Honor's objective of creating an open, collaborative, and shared AI terminal ecosystem.

Third, it launched the world's first full-ecosystem file sharing technology for seamless cross-platform ecological interconnection.

Due to various reasons, Apple iOS and Android are distinctly different, making cross-platform file transfer operations cumbersome and long-unresolved.

Now, Honor has launched the world's first full-ecosystem file sharing technology, enabling high-speed file transfer to multiple iOS and Android devices. The transfer speed between Honor devices reaches 125MB/s, between Honor and other Android devices reaches 100MB/s, and between Honor and iOS devices reaches 85MB/s, significantly enhancing the user experience across platforms.

In other words, Honor has broken down the long-standing barriers between Android and Apple iOS, constructing a truly open terminal ecosystem that brings unprecedented convenience to millions of users.

The "lighting-up" ceremony at the Honor Alpha Strategy conference

It is crucial to note that whether an open ecosystem can form a positive cycle determines the length of the path forward. Honor is well aware of this principle. Based on respecting each other's business logic and principles, it collaborates with partners to share the AI ecological value chain, achieving the ultimate goal of a strong alliance.

Time Magazine commented, "Li Jian, CEO of Honor, obviously does not lack ambition nor is he the type to choose the easy path. His vision is to invite the industry to jointly create a people-oriented, open, and collaborative AI future. He said that Honor is not only the name of a brand but also the ultimate expression of humanity's pursuit of self-realization."

From this perspective, in this drastic AI transformation, Honor has discovered a third path for terminal evolution beyond the Apple iOS ecosystem and the Android ecosystem. This path of an AI terminal ecosystem that "meets challenges with unity and embraces the future with openness" will critically depend on the role played by CEO Li Jian in determining whether it can grow wider, smoother, and farther in the future.