Track Hyper | Huawei Mate70 series sales will exceed 10 million units

Author: Zhou Yuan / Wall Street News

Tomorrow, on November 26, comprehensive and detailed information about the Huawei Mate 70 series will undoubtedly flood the screens.

This generation of the Mate series flagship, unlike the 2023 Mate 60 series, has returned to a normal release rhythm. The Mate 60 series was launched without prior announcement and went directly to market.

As of November 24, the reservation volume for the Mate 70 series on Huawei's official mall has exceeded 900,000, indicating a high level of market attention for this new device. Why say "also"? Because when Huawei launched the foldable model Mate XT, the reservation volume reached over 6 million.

How many Mate 70 units can actually be sold?

Wall Street News has exclusively learned from multiple supply chain channels that Huawei has already made internal estimates and is making related stocking efforts. At the appropriate time, Wall Street News will provide further disclosures.

Here is a data point for reference: The Mate 60 series, which unexpectedly hit the market on August 29, 2023, and began sales around September 10, has surpassed 14 million units in total sales by mid-November this year, exceeding the supply chain's previous expectation of 12 million units.

The Mate 60 series faced supply shortages; otherwise, sales could likely have reached 20 million units. If the Mate 70 series does not show significant improvements in product capability, the sales of the Mate 60 series will rise to another level.

However, it is said that the Mate 70 has made significant improvements, with Huawei's Executive Director, Chairman of the Terminal BG, and Chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, Richard Yu, directly calling it "the most powerful Huawei has ever had."

So what improvements does the Mate 70 series actually have?

From the various information that has been disclosed so far, as well as what Wall Street News has learned from the supply chain, it can be confirmed that the main camera sensor of the Huawei Mate 70 series will not use OV50K, but will use OV50H; the top configuration model will use a high-end Sony sensor; there are also reports that the main camera sensor of the Mate 70 series will use a sensor from SmartSens, with a limited quantity and not mentioned separately, likely mixing the standard version's main camera, which is somewhat unexpected.

Secondly, Huawei will not provide detailed information or even mention the 5G mobile computing platform, commonly known as the chip. There are rumors that it adopts domestic N+3 technology, with a process similar to TSMC's 5nm, and the NPU architecture is expected to still be the original self-developed Da Vinci architecture, which has very strong AI computing power.

Reports indicate that this generation of chips has solved the energy consumption problem. From the actual application of the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, Huawei's Kirin chip technology for controlling power consumption is indeed very strong.

Thirdly, perhaps because this generation of the rumored Kirin 9100 has solved the computing power and energy consumption issues, the upgrade focus of the Mate 70 series is concentrated on AI based on pure HarmonyOS NEXT as the technical foundation, but it is unclear whether it is on the cloud side or the end side. Previous reports suggested that the Pangu large model would be incorporated on the end side of the M70 series.

The limitation of end-side AI is the chip's computing power; if the computing power is insufficient, it is difficult to achieve end-side deployment. Since the technical details of the Kirin chip iterations after the 9000 series have not been publicly disclosed, it is impossible to speculate whether the Mate 70 series has achieved end-side deployment of AI Another point that needs a simple explanation is "pure-blood Harmony."

Why is it called pure-blood? Because HarmonyOS NEXT (Harmony Star River version) is entirely self-developed by Huawei, eliminating traditional Linux kernels and AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code, and only supports the Harmony microkernel.

Fourth, there is AI technology.

If the chip part solves the computing power and energy consumption issues, then AI will become the real highlight. According to known information, this is indeed the case.

On November 19th, Huawei Terminal released several promotional videos showcasing AI features of the Huawei Mate 70 series on its official WeChat account, featuring AI applications like character duplication; the video mentioned AI gestures, where the main character can control everything with a simple grab and release, suggesting that the Huawei Mate 70 will introduce new AI gesture technology.

Wall Street Insight has gathered current market information regarding the AI applications of the Mate 70 series, mainly including three aspects: privacy protection, AI imaging, and gesture control.

It is said that when the owner of the Huawei Mate 70 series browses information in public, if someone else's gaze also goes to the screen, the information being browsed will automatically hide, visible only to the owner and not to others. This feature is very useful and has a strong sense of technology.

Such AI technology has only been similarly introduced by Honor—using the Magic 7 series for WeChat voice or phone calls in public, where only the owner can hear the conversation, while others cannot.

In terms of AI imaging, in addition to the usual elimination functions, this time a creative new feature called "shadow duplication" will be introduced. What is "shadow duplication"? Through AI technology, it can "copy" multiple instances of characters in photos or videos taken by the user, making this feature very suitable for creative work.

The Mate 70 series, through AI technology, has also achieved more gesture interaction methods: with simple gestures, users can drag interface icons in the air, zoom in or out of the phone interface.

Isn't it amazing? Very attractive?

Wall Street Insight has learned that the Mate 60 series was limited by production capacity, affecting overall sales; while the Pura 70 series launched in the first half of this year had an initial pricing that was too high, leading to lower-than-expected sales before the third quarter; after Huawei launched a limited-time price reduction event for this series on July 18th, the sales of the Pura 70 series began to grow rapidly.

This time, the Mate 70 series is likely not to have an initial pricing that is too high like the Pura 70 series, nor will it follow domestic competitors in raising prices, but will maintain the same pricing as the Mate 60 series. If this is the case, then the sales of the Mate 70 series will likely exceed those of the Mate 60, starting at least 14 million units.

From the current market leaks about the Huawei Mate 70 series, it is clear that this series overall performance indeed surpasses last year's Mate 60 series. If production capacity issues are resolved and prices do not increase, then the Mate 70 series is likely to become a high-end flagship bestseller once again