Huawei and Apple start early to warm up.

Image source: Pexels

In September, Huawei's Mate50 series and iPhone 14 series will take over the high-end market around the same time, which means Apple and Huawei will go head-to-head.

On August 25, the official account of Apple issued an invitation to officially announce that the new fall product launch event will be held at 1 am on September 8. Before that, Huawei Mate50 series and new full-scene products will be released on September 6, two days apart.

Both companies' new products have bright spots. Comprehensive market Revelations and analysis, iPhone 14 series may have satellite connection, astrophotography and other functions, Liu Haiping will become an exclamation point screen, Huawei Mate50 series may support 5G communication phone case.

"We are all vicious competition here, there is no profit, so we are not willing to stock." Meng Shan, a mobile phone distributor based in Shanxi Province, told Time that he would watch for news about Huawei's Mate50 and iPhone 14 series, but would not stock up.

Sales of high-end smartphones (those priced wholesale at $400 or more) fell 10 per cent in China in the second quarter, compared with a 14 per cent decline in the overall market, with Apple accounting for 46 per cent and Huawei 11 per cent, according to Counterpoint Research.

　　Apple wants to shoot the moon, Huawei has black technology

The Mate series was created in 2013 and has been the benchmark for Huawei's premium flagships, while the Huawei Mate40 series was released in 2020, two years ago. The new Mate50 comes up against the powerful iPhone 14 series.

The market is focused on the price, so far, the market is not sure whether the price of the iPhone 14 series will increase.

Bloomberg quoted analysts as saying that the price of the base model of the iPhone 14 series would remain unchanged and that the price of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max would be raised by $100, then reported that Apple was planning to halt the price hike, possibly because of sales.

Adding $100 to the iPhone13 Pro, the iPhone 14 will start at about $8,700. Meanwhile, according to media leaks, the price of Huawei Mate50 series starts at 5,099 yuan, which is 100 yuan more than the Mate40 series.

The iPhone14 series has a number of changes from its predecessor. There will be no Mini version of the iPhone 14 series, the bangs may become an exclamation point screen, two models will have the new A16 chip, and the rest will have the A15 chip.

Other media analysis, Apple's August 25 invitation may hint at the iPhone 14 series three features: satellite connection, astrophotography, AOD display, satellite connection to help users contact the outside world when they lose cellular phone service.

Apple Invitation photo source: screenshot of Apple official account

As for Huawei, it is reported that HarmonyOS 3.0 will be pre-installed in the Mate50 series, and Snapdragon 8Gen1 4G version will be installed in the Mate50 series, except the Mate 50E, which will be powered by Snapdragon 778G. The whole series will not support 5G network, but it is expected to support 5G communication phone cases.

As for the 5G phone case, Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industrial economic observer, told Time Finance that although it can make the 4G phone have 5G network, it will make the phone thicker and heavier, affect the standby time, and cost a lot of money, which is obviously different from the 5G naked phone.

"Over the years, we have risen to the challenge and continued to explore the breakthrough of extreme black technology, and finally brought you the Huawei Mate50 series annual flagship." However, Huawei managing director and BG CEO Yu Chengdong did not disclose what the "black technology" is.

　　Mobile phone industry winter, dealers cautious attitude

Huawei and Apple have warmed up early. How does the market view their prospects?

This time, "Apple fan" Zheng Ya is concerned about the news of the iPhone 14 series. In her opinion, the iPhone14 series satellite connection features, exclamation point screen is more characteristic than the iPhone13 series is new.

She believes that if the Revelations are true, the iPhone 14 series will sell like crazy. However, she has no plans to buy it and will stick with the iPhone12.

A backpacker in Huaqiangbei told Time Finance that he is optimistic about the market performance of the iPhone 14 series due to the Revelations. He plans to buy the iPhone 14 series after the price drops, sell it at a slightly higher price, and keep one for himself.

Xiao Ai, an old Huawei user, said that he used to use Huawei mobile phones, but in the past two years, there are few new Huawei products, so he can only buy other brands, and he has not paid attention to the news of Huawei Mate 50 series.

Liang is not optimistic about the market performance of Huawei's Mate 50 series. He said Apple now has no competitors in China's high-end phone market, which costs 5,000 yuan or more, so the iPhone 14 series will still take most of the market share in the high-end segment.

According to CINNO Research, in the first half of this year, China's smartphone market recorded the worst first-half sales performance since 2015, with OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi's sales all falling by more than 20%, while Apple's only fell by 2.9%.

In 2020, when Huawei Mate40 series was released, CINNO Research data showed that Huawei sold about 68.8 million smartphones in the Chinese market that year, with a market share of 22.6%, ranking first.

(Zheng Ya and Xiao Ai are pseudonyms)