Apple iPhone 16 Series Takes a Steady Path, Huawei MateXT Tri-Fold Phone Takes a Bold Leap: Who Will Lead the Future?

Apple iPhone 16 Series Takes a Steady Path, Huawei MateXT Tri-Fold Phone Takes a Bold Leap: Who Will Lead the Future?On September 10, 2024, Apple and Huawei, coincidentally, chose the same day to unveil their flagship products, drawing the focus of the tech world. Apple, starting at 5999 yuan, continued its steady product update strategy with the new iPhone 16 series, while Huawei, starting at 19999 yuan, showcased its extreme innovation with the MateXT tri-fold phone

Apple iPhone 16 Series Takes a Steady Path, Huawei MateXT Tri-Fold Phone Takes a Bold Leap: Who Will Lead the Future?

On September 10, 2024, Apple and Huawei, coincidentally, chose the same day to unveil their flagship products, drawing the focus of the tech world. Apple, starting at 5999 yuan, continued its steady product update strategy with the new iPhone 16 series, while Huawei, starting at 19999 yuan, showcased its extreme innovation with the MateXT tri-fold phone. These two products, with their distinct styles, represent different directions for the future of mobile phones.

Apple iPhone 16 Series: Progressing Steadily, Maintaining Tradition

Apple CEO Tim Cook started the presentation of the iPhone 16 series with a simple "Good Morning." As previously leaked online, the new phone has upgraded performance configurations, but overall changes are minimal. AI features (Apple Intelligence) became the focus of this release, but this technology is more future-oriented, not yet demonstrating any sufficiently compelling highlights. It is not even as anticipated as the change to a Type-C port in last year's iPhone 15 series.

The iPhone 16 series mainly focuses on popularizing and fine-tuning existing features. For example, the two Pro models have increased screen sizes to 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches, respectively, and introduce new body colors like deep blue, indigo, and desert. These changes might become the main colors of the year, just like the far-peak blue of the iPhone 13 Pro series, the dark purple of the iPhone 14 Pro series, and the original titanium of the iPhone 15 Pro series.

Huawei MateXT: Tri-Fold Innovation, Leading the Future

On the same day, Huawei released the world's first commercially available tri-fold phone - MateXT. This phone has three appearances: single-screen, dual-screen, and tri-screen mode. When unfolded, the three screens form a 10.2-inch tablet with a thickness of only 3.6 mm (fully unfolded). Although there is still room for improvement in the overall weight and folded thickness, the Huawei MateXT is a historical milestone in the mobile phone market and the evolution of mobile phones.

Since releasing its first foldable phone, the MateXs, Huawei has actively explored various forms of foldable phones, including large internal folding and small split folding. MateXT is another extreme "innovative" exploration by Huawei in the foldable phone field, and it has the potential to lead the trend of tri-fold phones. No wonder Richard Yu described the MateXT with words like "most pioneering, innovative, disruptive" and "epoch-making."

Apple iPhone's "Steady" Strategy: Lack of Innovation or Excessively High Expectations?

Apple has been a benchmark in the mobile phone industry and the entire tech world for nearly ten years. Every iPhone launch is known as the "Spring Festival Gala of the Tech World." However, besides the iconic first-generation iPhone, iPhone 4, iPhone 6, and iPhone X, Apple's iterative updates in the full-screen era have appeared overly focused on "stability" to avoid significant product changes impacting sales negatively.

Besides the annual updates in color schemes, only the Type-C port updated across the iPhone 15 series has become a driving force for many consumers to upgrade. From major updates every two generations to major updates every three generations, and now to minor updates annually, Apple's iPhones inevitably make people wonder: Is innovation becoming more difficult for Apple, or are our expectations for iPhone innovation too high?

The iPhone is currently the most recognizable product in the tech industry. Even though it has been divided into versions like the standard iPhone, Plus, Pro, and Pro Max to target different users and markets, they all pursue mature and reliable solutions in terms of appearance and function. Therefore, when Apple released its first full-screen phone, the iPhone X in 2017, it also launched the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus to ensure the overall sales performance of the iPhone, as the mobile phone business is currently Apple's most important source of revenue.

Since entering the full-screen era, the iPhone's iterative updates have gradually become stable, minimizing the differences between adjacent generations. As for the long-awaited Apple foldable phone, Apple must have conducted product evaluations and research and development, but they are likely waiting for the maturity of related technologies and the ability to create a revolutionary phone before officially launching it. This aligns with Apple's high expectations for design and functional perfection.

The iPhone's current market size and user recognition make Apple prioritize "stability" in its product strategy, even to the point of being overly cautious. This has led to some domestic consumers and users feeling that the iPhone has not been as impressive in recent years. However, Apple's iPhone product strategy is generally effective. IDC data shows that Apple iPhone surpassed Samsung last year to become the world's best-selling smartphone, still dominating the industry.

The Rise of Domestic Mobile Phone Brands: Innovation and Internal Competition, Challenging Apple's Dominance

In recent years, with the rise of Chinese mobile phone brands, Apple has faced unprecedented challenges in the Chinese market. A large number of domestic flagship phones have achieved parity with the iPhone in terms of system smoothness, interaction, and privacy security. Domestic imaging flagship phones, with their ultra-large sensors, periscope telephoto lenses, and algorithm iterations, have surpassed the iPhone in photography. In the foldable phone category, domestic brands have already updated multiple generations of products, while Apple's foldable phone is still in the development stage, with a clear gap.

On August 28 last year, the Huawei Mate60 series was "launched before release," the first new phone with a "5G experience" released by Huawei after three years of dormancy due to sanctions. According to bloggers, the Huawei Mate60 series has sold over ten million units across all versions as of the end of June this year. Although it still lags behind the peak sales of over 30 million units for a single Huawei Mate series, it does not affect the Mate60 series' status as a market blockbuster.

In the past year, Huawei has resumed normal updates for its main mobile phone series, including Mate, MateX, Pura (formerly P series), and nova, covering both straight-screen and foldable phone forms. Huawei phones have made a full comeback. IDC data shows that in the first half of 2024, Huawei became the leader in China's smartphone market with a 17.5% market share, and its shipments in the first two quarters grew by an astonishing 110% and 50.2%. It took Huawei less than a year and only one generation of product iterations to reclaim the top spot. Behind this achievement lies Huawei's continuous investment in research and development, resulting in innovations like the Mate60 series' dual-satellite communication, the MateX5's lightweight and versatile foldable architecture, the Pura70Ultra's retractable camera, and the Pocket2's ultra-flat and reliable folding structure. The MateXT released today is another radical and leading product from Huawei in the foldable phone field.

Huawei was one of the first domestic brands to launch foldable phones. Later, brands like Honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo also entered the foldable phone market. After successfully resolving issues related to durability, thinness, and functional adaptation for foldable screens, they successfully opened up the previously inaccessible high-end market above 8000 yuan. Canalys data shows that Apple iPhone was overtaken by brands like vivo, Huawei, OPPO, Honor, and Xiaomi in terms of smartphone shipments in China in the second quarter of this year, falling to sixth place (third place in the same period last year). Apple's financial report for Greater China in the corresponding quarter also showed a decline. Faced with the relentless pressure from domestic mobile phone brands, market data has put pressure on Apple.

Conclusion: Innovation vs. Stability, Which Will Determine the Future?

If Apple iPhone pursues excessive "stability" in product iteration, then Huawei and other domestic mobile phone brands are characterized by "innovation" through internal competition, which is also the reason why Huawei and other domestic mobile phone brands have been able to rise in market competition. Apple is also actively making changes. In addition to launching dual-SIM dual-standby versions and various discounts in the Chinese market, product-wise, based on current leaked information, the iPhone 17 series will discontinue the Plus version next year and instead introduce the iPhone 17Air, which focuses on lightness and thinness, to enhance the iPhone's market competitiveness.

The iPhone 16 series, starting at 5999 yuan, will not have the Huawei MateXT, starting at 19999 yuan with limited production, as its primary competitor. However, the upcoming Huawei Mate70 series and a host of flagship models equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Dimensity 9400 chip platforms will be released soon, making the domestic high-end smartphone market extremely lively. Will the iPhone 16 series be able to handle the competition in terms of both its own features and price? Let's wait and see!