Track Hyper | Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master Market Dominance Deconstruction

Author: Zhou Yuan / Wall Street News

Huawei's new generation annual foldable screen Mate X6 is set to launch on November 26.

In addition to being an iteration of the Huawei Mate X5, the Huawei Mate X6 has some technology derived from the world's first triple-folding model, the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master, which has garnered significant market attention.

As the world's first triple-folding model, the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master won the 2024 Most Innovative Consumer Electronics Product Award from Time Magazine on October 31, thanks to its revolutionary triple-folding design.

Foldable phones have seen significant sales growth in recent years, and Huawei's foldable phones possess unparalleled brand dominance.

On October 25, IDC released its quarterly tracking report on China's smartphone market, showing that in the third quarter of 2024, Huawei ranked first with a 41% market share in shipments, continuing to lead the domestic foldable phone market.

Since 2019, Huawei has led the entire industry through pioneering innovations in structure and materials, while also upgrading the overall technological strength of the domestic foldable phone supply chain through cluster-based technological innovation.

However, Huawei's technological advancement never stops.

The technological innovations of the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master, launched on September 10, continue to push forward. By introducing multiple innovative technologies, Huawei has single-handedly broken the industry's stagnation in innovation and once again surpassed the "impossible" technological limits. Originating from Huawei's unique innovative thinking, the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master also possesses absolute market dominance.

What drives Huawei's technological innovation, allowing it to dominate the foldable phone market? Why will the triple-folding phone be Huawei's first mass-produced model?

Continuous Innovation in Technological Driving Capability

IDC's quarterly tracking report on China's smartphone market shows that in the third quarter of 2024, Huawei's foldable phone shipment market share reached 41%, ranking first, surpassing the combined market share of the second and third places, with a significant year-on-year increase of 8.3 percentage points, continuing to lead the domestic foldable screen market.

In fact, since the fourth quarter of 2021 until the third quarter of this year, Huawei has consistently ranked first in market share for smartphone shipments in the domestic market (data source: IDC).

In October 2018, Royole Technology launched the world's first mass-produced foldable phone, the Royole FlexPai. Although this product did not achieve market success, it opened up a new category: smart touchscreen foldable phones. Prior to this, Samsung had showcased the prototype of the world's first foldable screen device at the CES electronics show in 2011, but failed to mass-produce it.

On February 24, 2019, Huawei launched the world's first mass-produced 5G foldable screen smartphone, the Mate X, in Barcelona. Since then, the "Huawei era" in the Chinese foldable phone market has begun.

The most significant, valuable, and industry-relevant pioneering innovation of the Mate X is the introduction of the eagle-wing folding structure. This is a unique hinge that allows for free folding from 0 to 180 degrees.

Huawei's brand, technology, and product dominance in the foldable phone market were not achieved overnight Since the launch of the Mate X (which pioneered the eagle-wing folding structure), through the Mate X2 (February 22, 2021) which introduced the dual-rotation droplet hinge, the Mate X3 (March 23, 2023) which first launched impact-resistant non-Newtonian fluid materials, to the Mate X5 which went on sale directly on September 14, 2023, Huawei has continuously upgraded performance, imaging, battery life, and communication across multiple dimensions. This has allowed Huawei to dominate the Chinese foldable phone market for twelve consecutive quarters starting from the fourth quarter of 2021.

If Motorola and Royole Technology created the foldable phone track in the era of feature phones and smart touch screen phones, then the global first mass-produced triple-fold phone "Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master," launched on September 10 this year, breaks the boundaries of industry imagination once again, becoming the brightest innovative light in a time when even Apple, the pioneer of touch screen smartphones, has not seen technological innovation for years.

Time Magazine commented on this: Huawei has surpassed global competitors to become the first company to launch a triple-screen foldable phone.

This innovative pull has directly triggered a follow-up from Samsung Electronics.

On November 18, media reports indicated that Samsung Electronics will complete the design work for its triple-fold model by the end of November and plans to launch Samsung's first triple-fold model in 2025.

The True Commercial Competitiveness of Triple-Folding

Any terminal is a reflection of innovative ideas through technological capabilities at the commercial level.

What are the technological innovations of the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master?

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business and Chairman of Terminal BG, stated that the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master is Huawei's "culmination of five years of efforts."

However, the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master not only integrates all major innovations Huawei has made in the foldable phone track over the past five years but also takes technological innovation to new heights.

Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011) was a lifelong advocate of the "hardware-software integration" technological philosophy, and the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master also follows this industry technical guideline.

On the hardware level, the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master pioneered the Huawei Tiangong hinge system and multi-drive precision calibration, uniquely created the ultra-form triple-fold large screen, and globally launched the 3K Huawei immersive large screen. From the perspectives of form, internal and external opening and closing feel, screen brightness, screen-to-body ratio, and support for ten levels of physical variable aperture, it has built an unparalleled hardware strength for the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master.

If hardware capability is relatively easy to surpass, then the software strength, as the soul of the experience, is difficult to replicate due to its comprehensive system-level characteristics. Most of the hardware of Apple's smart touch screen phones has been far surpassed by the Android camp, but Apple's ecosystem still dominates the high-end market globally.

Breaking Apple's monopoly on the industry with "hardware-software integration" is Huawei, and Huawei's weapon is also hardware-software integration.

Even when facing well-known pressures, Huawei's "hardware-software integration" technological strength has made it the only Chinese competitor to Samsung Electronics in the global arena, engaging in a back-and-forth competition, frequently alternating between first and second place Huawei's digital foundation for smart terminals, a full-scenario, cross-terminal distributed operating system—HarmonyOS. Based on the Harmony operating system, Huawei has built the Harmony ecosystem.

When foldable phones first emerged, business scenario needs were one of the key core applications, and the Huawei Mate series itself is positioned as a business model.

From a practical application perspective, mobile light office is a high-frequency demand. Currently, the localized competitor that can rival the Microsoft Office suite is Kingsoft Office, among which WPS has become the most widely used and frequently utilized office software in the domestic market.

At present, WPS has become a part of Huawei's Harmony ecosystem. According to Kingsoft architect Qin Huan at this year's Huawei HDC conference, Kingsoft spent eight months optimizing WPS for the Harmony operating system, achieving a PC-level smooth application experience on smart terminals equipped with HarmonyOS.

This is extremely important.

This means that the Huawei Mate XT Extraordinary Master can partially replace the mobile light office functions of laptops, significantly enhancing the user experience for mobile office terminals that require long battery life and strong mobility.

This is considered by a considerable number of market observers in the smart terminal space to be the true market potential for triple-foldable models, with unlimited commercial potential.

Huawei's Long-Term Leading Core Competence

In recent years, the Chinese foldable screen market has developed rapidly, giving rise to a large number of excellent players, and consumers have benefited from more product choices.

The reason lies in the continuous technological innovation driven by Huawei, which pulls the industry chain. The innovative pull of leading enterprises, through forward-looking technological research, permeates the industry and guides the next trend of industrial development, thus leading the industry forward.

Through technological leadership, continuous iteration, and enhancement of the overall technical strength of the industry, ultimately benefiting the general consumer, this is Huawei's true value.

How is this achieved? To lead in technology, especially for the long term, is no easy task. For enterprises, at least three dimensions are needed: deep industry layout, keen technological insight, and sustained and firm R&D investment.

From the early small foldable (Huawei Mate Xs) to the dual-foldable (Huawei Mate X2), then to the outward foldable (Huawei P50 Pocket), and the latest triple-foldable (Huawei Mate XT), Huawei continuously expands its product line to meet the needs of different consumer groups.

This grand strategic layout of opening and closing ensures that Huawei has the capability to navigate a fiercely competitive market with ease, not only achieving integration in technology but also providing a rich variety of product choices at the consumer interface, effectively capturing market share.

Huawei's technological insight is also sharp; its R&D in the foldable screen field is not aimless but based on clear underlying logic.

Taking hinge technology as an example, Huawei has successfully achieved weight reduction and thickness reduction of foldable screens through pressure-based R&D investment, while maintaining structural stability and durability.

These technological advancements have successfully transformed foldable phones from flashy "works" into products truly suitable for mass consumption, leading the development trend of the industry These technological strengths are built on a long-term high level of R&D investment and a commitment to continuous innovation. Huawei's steadfast investment in R&D is the cornerstone that enables its products to continuously innovate and ensure product strength.

According to Huawei's annual report data, Huawei's R&D investment has continued to grow, reaching RMB 164.7 billion in 2023, accounting for 23.4% of total annual revenue; in 2022, these figures were RMB 161.5 billion and 25.1%; and in 2021, they were RMB 142.7 billion and 22.4%.

Huawei's R&D investment is reflected not only in foldable screen technology but also in multiple cutting-edge fields such as 5G, 6G, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, ensuring Huawei's leading position in global technological competition.

Years of substantial R&D investment have yielded significant results in both technology and business. Huawei has not only made breakthroughs in the foldable screen field but has also obtained a large number of patents globally.

These technological achievements have not only enhanced the competitiveness of Huawei's products but also brought more innovative experiences to consumers. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to increase its R&D investment to promote technological innovation to meet the growing demand for smart devices from global consumers.

In fact, Huawei's success in the foldable screen field is attributed to its deep industry insights, keen technological acumen, and steadfast R&D investment. These three dimensions collectively support Huawei's leadership position on the global technology stage and lay a solid foundation for its continued development in the future.

The 2024 flagship foldable product, the Huawei Mate X6, set to launch on November 26, is also a product guided by Huawei's technological innovation philosophy. What new imaginations will it bring to the world?