Honour is becoming a strong competitor to Huawei.

A 100,000-word article: The Triumph of Tesla

Author: Huang Yu

Editor: Zhang Xiaoling

Over the past three years, both Huawei and its spin-off brand Honor have faced numerous challenges. After these three years, Huawei has successfully overcome countless obstacles, while Honor has reached a critical turning point.

For Honor, Huawei has been both a halo and a constraint, making it more difficult for Honor to establish its own independent brand. Over the past three years, Honor has been working hard to break free from these constraints and prove that it can forge its own path.

In fact, Honor has achieved breakthroughs in independent product development, high-end foldable screens, and overseas markets over the past three years. In the third quarter of this year, it ranked first in market share in the domestic smartphone market, and its confidence is growing.

Having once thrived under the wings of Huawei, Honor has experienced a difficult rebirth over the past three years. From struggling on the brink of survival to dominating the domestic smartphone market, this independent smartphone manufacturer that strives for breakthroughs in the high-end market deserves to be reevaluated.

On November 17th, on the third anniversary of Honor's independence, Honor CEO Zhao Ming posted a reflection on his personal Weibo account, expressing his determination not to be defined by others. His goal is to create another globally recognized iconic technology brand.

From being a sub-brand dependent on Huawei to becoming an opponent that Huawei cannot ignore, this is not only Zhao Ming's ambition but also the expectation of Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei.

Rebirth

Honor was once a sub-brand created by Huawei, focusing on the youth-oriented and mid-to-low-end smartphone market. When it was still under Huawei, Honor developed products based on the Kirin chipset and the HarmonyOS platform. In 2020, Huawei was forced to sell Honor. After becoming independent, Honor relied on industry SoC solutions and developed products based on the Android system.

This also means that Honor, which has emerged from the "greenhouse" of Huawei, has to start from scratch and rebuild its platform capabilities and system with the support of the global industrial chain.

During the initial period of independence, Honor inevitably experienced a dark period, going from a brand that once held a market share of around 15% in China to a low point of 3%.

Zhao Ming admitted that if we were to go back three years ago, Honor, as a newly independent brand in the Chinese market, would have been the weakest among all the core players in the smartphone industry. Otherwise, people wouldn't have said in 2020 that "Honor is finished and cannot make a comeback."

In the fiercely competitive smartphone industry, Honor had to seize every second and fight for every minute to quickly enter the market and compete.

Therefore, Honor and Huawei have taken different technological paths.

Honor is like picking up what Huawei has dropped. While Huawei focuses on fundamental research and development (operating systems and chips), Honor chooses to delve into engineering technology and jointly innovate in areas such as butterfly hinges, Luban titanium gold hinges, and titanium alloy 3D printing processes. This approach allows Honor to quickly establish core technological advantages.

Honor has chosen a consumer-oriented route. Zhao Ming explained, "Honor's consideration is what is the best product and solution we can provide to consumers in the present or in the near future. We can also develop SoCs (system-on-chips), but it takes 5-7 years to make an SoC that leads the industry. How can we better serve consumers within such a time frame?" After a year of "survival" and a year of "accumulation of strength," Honor's product strength has also been significantly improved this year.

Market sales speak louder than words. In the IDC ranking of China's smartphone shipments in the third quarter, Honor ranked first in the domestic smartphone market with a market share of 19.3%.

In overseas markets, although Honor has not yet entered the top five, its growth is strong. According to Zhao Ming, Honor's growth rate in overseas markets exceeded 200% this year, and it achieved profitable growth within two years.

In the current stock competition in the smartphone market, in order to further increase its market share, Honor needs to make a breakthrough in the high-end market. Zhao Ming has also set a goal, stating, "Honor wants to truly change the situation where Apple dominates the high-end market."

Foldable screens have become Honor's strategic breakthrough in the high-end market. This year has been a year of breakthrough for Honor in foldable screens, with three foldable screen models released within three months, from the Magic V2 in July to the Honor V Purse in September, and then the Magic Vs2 in October.

After years of cultivation, foldable smartphones have actually entered the mainstream consumer stage, and they are expected to help Honor further increase its market share in the high-end market.

"Last year and the year before, global foldable screen shipments were 3 million units, and as of the end of August this year, it was 3 million units." Zhao Ming predicts that the annual shipment volume this year will reach nearly 6 million units, and next year's shipment volume may be over 10 million units.

In the high-end market, Honor also cannot lag behind in AI large models. According to Zhao Ming, Honor is also about to launch a self-developed 7 billion-parameter edge-side AI large model and a brand-new cloud service.

Ambition

Honor's three-year journey in the market is full of emotions.

One topic that cannot be avoided is Huawei. Huawei's genes are both valuable assets and constraints for Honor. Honor is not independent enough as a brand and is overshadowed by Huawei.

This is the demon in the hearts of the Honor team. Zhao Ming recalled, "From the first day of Honor's independent entrepreneurship, people have been telling me that it is impossible. It is impossible to break free from the inherent definition, impossible to surpass the boundaries set by the industry, and even impossible to break the existing world's cognition."

Zhao Ming believes that Honor has always been breaking boundaries and challenging established orders or standards. The achievements of the past three years have proved that it exists and develops independently of Huawei, and has taken a different path.

Although it does not develop chips, Honor has also focused on building underlying capabilities, including thinner foldable screens, AI large models, Oasis eye protection technology, and Qinghai Lake batteries.

The biggest reason why Honor can quickly rise again, according to Zhao Ming, is the "team." "We can succeed if we start over, and we can do better. This is the team's greatest confidence when we became independent three years ago."

It is also because of this team that Zhao Ming is not afraid even when the big brother Huawei returns.

He said, "Huawei's return, the strong entry of Huawei's Mate60 into the market, is great. We love competing with strong opponents. We came out of that system, and we are not afraid of anyone." Honour also has bigger ambitions, which is to create the glory of the world. It does have considerable room for growth in overseas markets.

2022 is the first year of Honour's overseas expansion, and 2023 will be the first year in Europe. Zhao Ming pointed out that Europe is the high ground for Honour. Honour wants to make Europe the "second home market" and become a high-end brand in Europe. The next step is to create global glory.

Currently, with the increasingly fierce competition in domestic and international markets, Honour's future is still full of opportunities and challenges. In the high-end market, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei are still the dominant players, and breaking through is not easy.

Three years ago, Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei said at a farewell meeting that Honour should become Huawei's strongest global competitor, surpass Huawei, and even challenge Huawei. "In the future, we will be competitors. You can hold 'foreign guns' and 'foreign cannons', and we will hold new 'Hanyang-made' weapons, new 'big swords, and long spears'. Who wins and who loses is still uncertain?"

Three years later, both Huawei and Honour have become prominent players in China's science and technology innovation landscape.

As a Huawei subsidiary, Honour inherits Huawei's values and culture, and has its own unique product and brand connotations. This is a wolf-like team that is not afraid of tough battles. Anything is possible in the future. Perhaps the next Chinese smartphone brand that can compete with Samsung and Apple in the global high-end market will be Honour.

Ren Zhengfei is also looking forward to that day.