Huawei releases new smartphones to compete with Apple
Huawei released its new flagship smartphone Mate 9 in Shanghai on Nov. 14. Aiming to compete with Apple's iPhone, the Mate 9 is Huawei's first mobile phone priced at over 5,000 RMB, said Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business group, Thepaper.cn reported.
"We hope the M9 has a better customer experience performance than Apple [phones do]. Otherwise, consumers will not pay more money to buy the phones," reasoned Yu.
This attempt to enter the high-end market is a first for Huawei. The company developed its last flagship smartphone, dual-camera P9, with Leica several months ago. At that time, there were three versions of the Mate 9: regular (priced 3,000-4,000 RMB), Mate Pro (4,000-5,000 RMB) and the Porsche version (up to 8,999 RMB).
The domestic price is more than 1,000 RMB cheaper than the European version. The Porsche sells in Europe for 1,395 euros, equivalent to about 10,460 RMB.
"In addition to independent innovation, Huawei also needs to develop new products with its partners. The new design with Porsche has received good feedback in Europe," Yu noted. The price of the Mate 9 is higher than that of Apple's iPhone.
According to Huawei, its overseas mobile phone market share is more than 15 percent in 30 foreign countries, and over 20 percent in 20 countries.
"Our sales in European countries doubled this year," said Yu. However, in the mid-range domestic mobile phone market, Huawei has been surpassed by OPPO and Vivo. Statistics show that OPPO and Vivo respectively took up 16.6 percent and 16.2 percent of domestic market shares in the first three quarters this year, while Huawei's shares totaled 15 percent.
According to Yu, Huawei is focusing more on long-term competitiveness, to achieve breakthroughs in core fields and key technologies. Huawei's expenditure on research and development is more than the sum of all other domestic mobile phone brands, and the company has zero tolerance for quality issues.
"Innovation is always accompanied by risks, so we have a full risk control system," Yu explained.
Huawei has also announced plans to establish an Android green alliance with Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and Netease. The alliance is committed to jointly building up the Android green application environment and creating a safe, reliable, healthy system of applications.
This attempt to enter the high-end market is a first for Huawei. The company developed its last flagship smartphone, dual-camera P9, with Leica several months ago. At that time, there were three versions of the Mate 9: regular (priced 3,000-4,000 RMB), Mate Pro (4,000-5,000 RMB) and the Porsche version (up to 8,999 RMB).
The domestic price is more than 1,000 RMB cheaper than the European version. The Porsche sells in Europe for 1,395 euros, equivalent to about 10,460 RMB.
"In addition to independent innovation, Huawei also needs to develop new products with its partners. The new design with Porsche has received good feedback in Europe," Yu noted. The price of the Mate 9 is higher than that of Apple's iPhone.
According to Huawei, its overseas mobile phone market share is more than 15 percent in 30 foreign countries, and over 20 percent in 20 countries.
"Our sales in European countries doubled this year," said Yu. However, in the mid-range domestic mobile phone market, Huawei has been surpassed by OPPO and Vivo. Statistics show that OPPO and Vivo respectively took up 16.6 percent and 16.2 percent of domestic market shares in the first three quarters this year, while Huawei's shares totaled 15 percent.
According to Yu, Huawei is focusing more on long-term competitiveness, to achieve breakthroughs in core fields and key technologies. Huawei's expenditure on research and development is more than the sum of all other domestic mobile phone brands, and the company has zero tolerance for quality issues.
"Innovation is always accompanied by risks, so we have a full risk control system," Yu explained.
Huawei has also announced plans to establish an Android green alliance with Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and Netease. The alliance is committed to jointly building up the Android green application environment and creating a safe, reliable, healthy system of applications.
