Huawei challenges Samsung and Apple with new Mate 10 smartphones China’s Huawei has unveiled a new line of smartphones that mat...
Huawei challenges Samsung and Apple with new Mate 10 smartphones
China’s Huawei has unveiled a new line of smartphones that match or
even improve on key features offered by Apple or Samsung while
undercutting their rivals on price.
Huawei aims to distinguish itself through technological advances that
will put it on a level playing field with the most coveted
premium-priced devices, helping to boost profitability that has been
undermined by heavy discounting in the chase for market share.
Monday’s product launch in Munich introduced Huawei’s new Mate 10
series, touting high-end cameras, screens and batteries but at prices
15-30 percent below more or less comparable Apple and Samsung
smartphones.
Huawei was the world’s No.3 smartphone maker by shipments last year,
temporarily overtaking Apple as No.2 in June as consumers awaited the
new iPhone 8 and iPhone X line-up, data from Counterpoint Research
shows.
With Apple’s latest models now on the market, Huawei has weighed in
with the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, featuring, respectively, 5.9-inch and
6-inch edge-to-edge displays, as well as fast-charging batteries that
sustain two days of heavy use.
“The Mate 10 line ticks all the boxes in terms of screen size,
high-quality camera, powerful processor and slick design – competing
with rival products from Samsung and to some extent, Apple,” said CCS
Insight mobile analyst Ben Wood.
Perhaps the most distinctive features of the Mate 10 series is its
image recognition capability — an artificial intelligence feature that
can tell the difference between people, flowers or other objects in
different light or weather conditions. The Mate 10 also boasts cameras
with high-grade Leica f1.6 aperture lenses.
“We have the ability to start helping the novice become a
professional-grade photographer,” Peter Gauden, a senior Huawei product
marketing manager, said at an advance product briefing. “(It) is not
only a smartphone, it is an intelligent machine.”
Pricing and profitability
In March Huawei vowed to focus on profit margins and reduce spending
this year after posting its slowest profit growth in 5 years in 2016.
Though it has become more focused on mid-tier and premium phones and
reduced its appetite for market share at any cost, it still has a long
way to go.
Apple captures nearly two thirds of the smartphone industry’s profits
and Samsung accounts for almost a quarter while Huawei and Chinese
rivals operate on meager margins of about 4 percent, Counterpoint
Research estimates.
Those modest margins put a cap on how far Huawei can go with further discounting.
China’s largest smartphone maker is looking to sustain its momentum
in international markets such as Europe while also differentiating
itself from fast-growing domestic rivals through technical advances.
“Today our product is getting better and better, but the challenge
for us is our branding,” Huawei Consumer Business Group chief Richard Yu
told Reuters last month. “Our brand, many people don’t know that, they
don’t know Huawei.”
Huawei’s European growth exceeded 50 percent in the first half of
2017, outpacing other regions, Yu said, adding that European sales had
helped to compensate for sluggish growth in emerging markets.
The Mate 10, priced at 699 euros ($825), will go on sale in 15
countries this month, ranging from Spain to the Gulf states, Australia
and southeast Asia, Huawei said.
The slightly more feature-rich Mate 10 Pro will be priced at 799
euros and start to ship in mid-November to 20-plus countries, including
Germany, France, Italy, as well as Asian and Middle East nations. The
company also said it will offer a luxury Porsche Design edition at 1,395
euros.
Samsung’s comparable top-of-the-line phone, the Galaxy Note 8, is
priced at 999 euros in Germany. Apple’s smaller-screened iPhone 8 starts
at 799 euros while the iPhone 8 Plus is 909 euros and the iPhone X
starts at 1,149 euros on the company’s German website.
