Following the "sold out before release" trend of the Huawei Mate 60 series last August, Huawei is back at it again.
On April 18th, the Huawei Pura 70 series smartphones were suddenly up for sale! The Pura 70 series includes four versions: Pura 70, Pura 70 Pro, Pura 70 Pro+, and Pura 70 Ultra, priced between 5499 yuan and 10999 yuan.
Last year, the sudden release of the Mate 60 series sparked nationwide discussion, with its sales remaining consistently high, leading to Mate 60 being perpetually out of stock by the end of the year. Perhaps tasting the immense attention brought by this "sudden attack," Huawei's Pura70 series smartphones also adopted this unconventional strategy, contrary to industry norms.
Huawei has high hopes for this new device. Just days before its release, Huawei announced the upgrade of the P series brand to the Pura series, with the Pura70 being the first phone in this series. If the Mate 60 symbolized Huawei's return to the 5G smartphone market, then the Pura70 serves as Huawei's formidable weapon for all-out advancement.
Previously, Huawei's pinnacle in the high-end smartphone market (priced at ≥$600) was in the first half of 2020, when it surpassed Apple with a 44% market share compared to Apple's 41%, becoming the leader in China's high-end market. Now, with the hot sales of the Mate 60 series and the launch of the Pura70 series, Huawei is aggressively reclaiming lost ground in the high-end market. Whether it can surpass Apple and regain its former first place, the Pura70 series will be the decisive battle.
How powerful is the Pura70?
According to data previously released by Huawei, as of the end of 2021, the cumulative shipments of the Huawei P series exceeded 100 million units (excluding the Huawei P60 series), which is remarkable for a high-end smartphone.
Huawei's Executive Director, CEO of the Consumer Business Group, and Chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions Business Unit, Richard Yu, stated that after the upgrade of the Huawei P series to "Huawei Pura," this series of smartphones will continue to explore imaging and aesthetics.
For brands plagued by negative associations, renaming might be a fresh start to break free from public opinion pressure. However, for a brand that is already well-established and mostly positively perceived, renaming is undoubtedly a significant event, as it may mean resetting the brand awareness previously established.
Yet, Huawei had long been considering renaming. According to intellectual property information from Tianyancha, as early as 2019, Huawei applied to register multiple "Pura" and "HUAWEI Pura" trademarks, classified under international categories for scientific instruments, with two trademarks successfully registered to date.
In Spanish, "pura" means "pure," which is quite similar to the English word "pure." It's worth noting that Spanish is the world's third-largest language, following Mandarin Chinese and English.
Industry insiders speculate that this renaming is likely a signal of Huawei's return to the international market. Leveraging Huawei's strong brand influence domestically, rebuilding the Pura brand shouldn't be too challenging, especially considering the impressive product capabilities of its first product, the Pura70 series.
The most notable change in the Huawei Pura70, besides its name, is clearly its appearance. The rear camera module adopts a triangular design, standing out among the crowd of circular and rounded square modules. The Pura70 is currently the only mainstream phone featuring a triangular module design. While aesthetic preferences may vary, its distinctive appearance maximizes recognition.
In addition to the changes in appearance, the Pura70 also receives significant internal upgrades. The top-of-the-line Pura70 Ultra model features a 1-inch main camera sensor with a 50-megapixel resolution, along with two additional lenses: a 50-megapixel macro telephoto lens and a 40-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens.
This marks Huawei's first use of a 1-inch main camera sensor. In the past few years, due to design constraints, Huawei has generally lagged behind its competitors by one or two generations in camera sensor technology. Now, not only has it finally caught up with the competition, but it also signifies Huawei's return to normalcy in its supply chain.
The noteworthy aspect is that the main camera of the Huawei Pura70 Ultra adopts a telescopic lens design. Its major advantage is that, like many professional cameras, it can adjust the focal length by extending the lens. In other words, the Pura70 Ultra might achieve professional-level background blur without relying solely on algorithms, thanks to this telescopic lens. It's fair to say that smartphones are getting closer to cameras.
However, the processor of the Huawei Pura70 series, like the Mate60 series, hasn't disclosed its specific model. According to tech bloggers, it might be a slightly upgraded version of the Kirin 9000S.
In terms of other specifications, the Huawei Pura70 series is also quite similar to the Mate60 series, featuring Kunpeng glass, bidirectional satellite communication, and Lingxi communication.
As for the prices, the different versions of the four products are priced as follows:
Huawei Pura70:
Huawei Pura70 Pro:
Huawei Pura70 Pro+:
Huawei Pura70 Ultra:
Compared to the Huawei Mate 60 Pro+ and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Huawei Pura70 Ultra stands out in terms of configuration and features. Last year's hot sales of the Mate 60 series also prove Huawei's appeal in the smartphone market.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TF Securities previously projected a substantial growth in shipments for the P70 series (Pura70 series) in 2024, with a potential year-on-year increase of up to 230%, reaching 13 to 15 million units.
If the Pura70 series follows the trajectory of the Mate 60 series in terms of sales, it may initially face capacity issues. Last year, after the launch of the Mate 60 series, there was a prolonged period of supply shortage, with capacity unable to meet market demand. With the arrival of the Pura70 series, Huawei needs to address this issue first.
According to a Huawei store salesperson interviewed by PConline, the inventory of the Pura70 series this time is two to three times that of the Mate 60 series, but it is still expected to be in short supply in the short term.
As of the time of writing, PConline found that all four versions of the Pura70 series are sold out.
Huawei's comeback in the high-end market
Before the arrival of the Pura70 series, the Mate 60, as the "big brother," had already paved the way for it.
Market research firm CounterPoint forecasts an 11% increase in shipments in the global $150-249 (approximately ¥1084-1800 RMB) mid-low-end smartphone market in 2024, while shipments in the $600-799 (approximately ¥4337-5776 RMB) high-end smartphone market are expected to increase by 17%.
Due to chip constraints and Honor's independence, Huawei has been absent from the mid-low-end market for the past few years. Currently, it only has the Enjoy series and the nova series, but neither has high sales volume. The nova 12, with the highest number of comments on Huawei's official website, has fewer than 8,000 comments.
Therefore, the higher-priced high-end market has become Huawei's main battleground. Currently, Huawei's high-end product lines include the Pura70 series, Mate 60 series, foldable Pocket series, Mate Xs series, and Mate X5 series. Among them, the best-selling Mate 60 Pro has over 150,000 comments on Huawei's official website.
According to CounterPuraoint Research data, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei's smartphone sales in China grew by 71.1%, with its market share increasing from 9.5% in the same period last year to 15.2%, rising from sixth to third place.
According to "Wall Street See", as of March 1st, the total sales of Huawei Mate 60 series and Mate X5 have exceeded 10 million units. The BCI report also indicates that in the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei's sales of smartphones priced above 10,000 RMB accounted for 40% of the market.
Previously, Huawei's peak in the high-end smartphone market (with a price of ≥$600) was in the first half of 2020 when it surpassed Apple with a market share of 44% compared to Apple's 41%, becoming the leader in China's high-end market. Now, with the hot sales of the Mate60 series and the launch of the Pura70 series, Huawei is making a big comeback. Whether it can surpass Apple and reclaim its former glory, the Pura70 series will be a key battle.
In the foldable phone market, Huawei is also making significant progress. According to the latest report from research firm DSCC, Huawei's foldable phone market is expected to grow by 105% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, and its market share will surpass Samsung's for the first time, becoming the top player in the foldable phone market.
For Huawei today, the significance of the high-end market lies in the fact that although the shipment volume is not as high as the mid-to-low-end market, the higher average selling price significantly improves Huawei's profitability and contributes more profit.
According to Huawei's financial report, in 2023, Huawei achieved global sales revenue of 704.2 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 9.64%. Among them, the terminal business achieved sales revenue of 251.5 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 17.3%.
It is worth mentioning that the popularity of the Mate 60 series last year also drove up sales of the Huawei HorizonOS-powered Wanjie M7, with both models being launched within half a month of each other. Now, the new Wanjie M7 has sold over 170,000 units in 9 months since its launch, with an average monthly sales volume of nearly 20,000 units. However, during the same period, the cumulative sales of the sibling model Wanjie M5 were only 13,000 units, less than one-tenth of the former.
With the launch of the Pura70 series, Huawei seems to be replicating the strategy of using smartphones to drive car sales. On April 23rd, the new Wanjie M5 will be released, and if it can make certain adjustments in configuration upgrades and pricing like the Wanjie M7, replicating the success of the former is not impossible.
"Hongmeng" on the rise
The resurgence of Huawei smartphones has directly impacted the user base of the HarmonyOS system.
The Mate 60 went on sale in August last year, and shortly thereafter in early September, Huawei announced the full launch of native HarmonyOS applications. With this, HarmonyOS began to truly overcome the "shell" questioning brought by compatibility with Android and moved towards a "pure" HarmonyOS.
Huawei has announced that the "Huawei Developer Conference 2024" will be held in June this year, and HarmonyOS NEXT will start its developer Beta version plan in June, with the commercial version scheduled for the fourth quarter.
Previously, Yu Chengdong stated, "2024 is a crucial year for native HarmonyOS. We need to accelerate the development of various native HarmonyOS applications and focus on winning the two most difficult battles of technological foundation and third-party ecology."
It is reported that as of the end of March this year, more than 4,000 applications have joined the HarmonyOS ecosystem, covering various fields such as life e-commerce, travel, finance, social, news, productivity tools, audio-visual entertainment, and games.
However, this number still significantly lags behind Android and iOS. According to data from the National APP Technical Detection Platform, as of the end of May 2023, there were already 2.61 million active apps in the Chinese domestic market. As Huawei HarmonyOS smartphone sales rise and user base expands, the richness of the software ecosystem also increases, but some niche apps still need more time to adapt.
"A single tree does not make a forest." For the HarmonyOS ecosystem to grow and prosper, it needs more HarmonyOS smartphones. Only with more and more users can the HarmonyOS ecosystem form a positive cycle, attracting more developers to develop HarmonyOS applications. Although the Mate 60 series is selling well, and the Pura70 series is competitive, the number of users of high-end smartphones is ultimately not as high as the mid-to-low-end market.
However, as mentioned earlier, Huawei's mid-to-low-end brands, including the Enjoy series and the nova series, have performed significantly worse in the market over the past two years. Huawei's smartphone shipment target for 2024 is 60-70 million units, still nearly four times lower than the peak of 240 million units in 2019.
Therefore, while maintaining its position in the high-end market, Huawei may need to consider launching more competitive mid-to-low-end smartphones to continue to increase the installation base and user group of HarmonyOS.
In summary, if the Mate 60 unveiled the prelude to Huawei's return to the smartphone market, then the Pura70 is a sign of Huawei's supply chain normalization and the comprehensive blossoming of its software ecosystem.
