Whether Samsung’s Galaxy Fold or Huawei Mate X, it is with a bunch of questions.
Huawei’s folding mobile phone is late.
On October 23, Huawei released its first folding phoneMate X, supporting 5G dual mode , the national version of the price of up to 16,999 yuan. This is the industry’s third folding phone.
Mate X made its debut at the MWC in Spain in February and was originally scheduled to be released around the middle of the year. However, after Samsung’s folding mobile phone thunder, Huawei adopted a more cautious strategy. He Gang, president of Huawei’s mobile phone product line, said that “there are a lot of adjustments in ensuring the continued use of (folding mobile phones).”
With Samsung’s predecessor, Huawei released the folding machine and became cautious
Huawei Folding Mobile Phone was famous in MWC in February, but the official release after 8 months was very low-key. The pre-warning promotion before the conference did not mention “folding the phone”. The first wholesale goods are only mass production in small quantities, and the market reaction is tested. At the time of the MWC show, Yu Chengdong once said that he can mass production at any time, with a monthly shipment of 100,000 units. However, Huawei executives (He Gang), who were interviewed at the time of the release, avoided talking about mass production.
Huawei’s cautiousness is not unreasonable. Folding mobile phones as a cutting-edge innovation product, the risk of thunderstorms is high, and Samsung’s foresight is at hand.
Huawei folding mobile phone Mate X, picture from Huawei
In February of this year, Samsung officially released the folding mobile phone Galaxy Fold, and accepted the reservation from April 15th. It was originally scheduled to be officially listed on April 26. However, during the time when the booking was started and not yet available, the Samsung Folding Mobile Phone revealed a broken screen event. The evaluation machine sent by Samsung to the media only used for a day or two, and the screen appeared to be raised, splashed, black screened, etc., and even some of the experience machine screens were broken.
Affected by this, Samsung recalled all Galaxy at the end of April.Fold evaluation machine. On April 22, Samsung has announced that it will postpone the release of the North American region on April 26, and will not begin official sales until September. The China conference, scheduled to be held on April 24, was also temporarily cancelled. Samsung said it was the reason for the venue, but many insiders speculated that this was related to the impact of the screen-breaking incident.
The smashing of the screen has not only affected Samsung’s brand image, but also made the market more worried about the quality and practicality of the folding mobile phone.
Only just over a month ago, the folding machine’s limelight even exceeded 5G. At the MWC (World Mobile Communications Conference) held in Spain at the end of February this year, Huawei Mate X and Samsung Galaxy Fold face each other, and the two booths are adjacent to each other, showing their folds in the most conspicuous position. Mobile phones, these two folding phones have also become the most popular star products of this event.
With the lessons of Samsung, Huawei has become very cautious about releasing folding mobile phones. It was postponed until the end of October after the release of the middle of the year. A Huawei spokesperson told CNBC: “We don’t want to launch a product that undermines our reputation.”
But even the officially released product still has obvious flaws. From the author’s live experience, the Mate X screen has a few unobtrusive bumps in the center, and the screen quality is not as good. In view of the current process and technical level, this is a common problem of folding mobile phones and cannot be solved temporarily.
Folding mobile phones that are easy to thunder, a pile of technical problems to be solved
Whether it is Samsung’s violent thunder or Huawei’s cautiousness, its roots lie in the difficulty of folding mobile phones.
Folding mobile phones are divided into two ways: inner folding (folding screen to the inside of the screen) and folding (folding screen to the back of the screen). According to industry sources, the bending radius of the outer folding design is relatively large, so the process is less difficult. Samsung has the world’s best screen technology, challenging the more difficult interior design on the Galaxy Fold. Huawei and Rouyu use a folding design with less process difficulty.
Either Samsung’s internal fold, or the soft fold of Huawei and Huawei, there are currently some common problems to be solved: bear the brunt of durability of screens, hinges and hinges Second, how to build a good application ecology.
Folding a mobile phone requires more than 100,000 times of folding to qualify, which is a great test for its screen and hinges. Huawei and Samsung have all claimed to support 200,000 folds, but in the CNET test, the Samsung folding screen was permanently damaged after 120,000 folding.
Compared with the current OLED full screen player.
How do folding mobile phones go from niche to mass?
Folding a mobile phone is undoubtedly a cool concept. It provides a screen that is twice as large as the current mainstream full-screen phone, and can get the “phone + tablet” operation experience, and also brings a new interactive experience such as split-screen operation.
Gartner mobile phone analyst Lu Junkuan said that folding mobile phones have two meanings, one is the further differentiation of high-end mobile phones, and the other is to combine the tablet and mobile phone in one, and enhance the mobile phone. The productivity feature gives smartphones the opportunity to gain eating tablet and PC markets. Folding mobile phones will not start in the short term, and will become a branch of smart phones in the future.
Currently, Samsung is increasing the production of folding phones month by month, and the company’s target for next year will be 5 million to 6 million. This figure exceeds the expectations of market research institutions IHS and DSCC, but even if it is realized, the sales of 5 million to 6 million units account for less than 0.5% of the 1.4 billion global mobile phone market. Folding mobile phone R & D, design, and component costs are relatively high, and will be at the top of high-end mobile phones for a long time.
The industry is mostly optimistic about the prospect of folding mobile phones.
Guohai Securities believes that when the conditions are ripe, the folding mobile phone will become the mainstream of the market, and may reach a more ideal price point in 2020 or 2021. The Galaxy Fold may eventually bring great advantages to Samsung. According to IHS Markit, by 2025, the foldable panel is expected to have a shipment of 50 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 80%.
How do you cross the Rift Valley and turn it from a niche exploration product to a mass category? In addition to solving the above-mentioned process problems, it is also necessary to meet the two basic needs of mass consumers, one is portable and the other is cheap.
currentThe folding mobile phone has a thickness of more than 10 cm (11 cm after the Huawei Mate X is folded). Many users like to put the mobile phone in the jeans pocket. The thickness of more than ten centimeters will challenge the user’s daily habits.
Secondly, the price of the first generation of folding mobile phones is high, Huawei Mate X European version 2299 euros, National Bank version 16999 yuan, Samsung Galaxy Fold price 1980 dollars, which is far from the price acceptable to the public. He Gang bluntly said that “some key components are very expensive.” To lower the threshold of consumption depends on the improvement of the industrial chain and the gradual increase of folding mobile phones. The spring of folding screen mobile phones will not be as sudden as 5G mobile phones (multiple organizations predict that 5G mobile phones will sell more than 100 million units next year), and it is necessary to face long-term sales climbs.
The innovative design of the folding phone is promising, and its novel experience has enough impact. But whether Samsung’s Galaxy Fold or Huawei Mate X is with a bunch of problems, before the spring of folding mobile phones, the two leading giants still have a lot of roads.
The head map is from Huawei