China's smartphone market can be described as a cloud of masters, wars, and the competitive situation has been rolled up no longer. After several battles, some people are happy and some are sad. Honor once topped the domestic market share list in 2022 years, and at that time it was prosperous, but the good times were short-lived, and now it has declined quarter-on-quarter for five consecutive quarters, and even fell out of the top five in China.

據網路公開數據，2024 全年，榮耀出貨量約4220 萬台，同比下滑3%，與大盤4% 的增長背道而馳。同期，vivo、華為出貨量分別大增11%、37%；今年1 月，小米、華為、vivo、oppo 均喜迎開門紅，啟動量大幅增長，榮耀卻依舊在Top5門外徘徊，只能與魅族、中興等品牌為伍。

What's worse is that in 1 years and 0 months, Zhao Ming, the founder and CEO of Honor, suddenly resigned, and many core executives also left one after another, and Li Jian, who took over as CEO, came from the Huawei system, which made the outside world question the independence of the Honor brand and cast a shadow on its IPO process.

With a tidal wave of tricky challenges, glory awaits an incredibly tough breakout battle.

The high-end is weak, and the folding screen has failed to break through

On the high-end track of the smartphone market, major brands are gearing up to try to seize the high ground, and Honor is also eager to get a piece of the pie in this field, but the reality is extremely cruel.

On the one hand, despite Honor's efforts to build a moat for its flagship products, it is still mired in the lack of high-end and struggles in the highly competitive high-end market.

IDC數據顯示，在中國600美元以上高端市場中，2024年全年，華為的市場份額為30.7%（2023年21.4%），蘋果則降到51.1%（2023年61.8%）。榮耀、vivo、小米雖然都躋身高端市場前五的位置，但目前市場份額都還是只有4%左右。

This huge gap is a direct reflection of Honor's sluggish performance in the high-end market. The reason for this is that the technical advantages are insufficient, although Honor has leading advantages in AI, eye protection screens and other technical fields, but the technical reserves in core technology fields such as chip research and development and system optimization are relatively weak, and the slight advantages are not enough to fully support its high-end.

Second, the brand advantage is insufficient. Compared with competitors such as Huawei, Honor has obvious deficiencies in terms of brand influence and product reputation, and its brand image has not yet firmly established a high-end positioning in the hearts of consumers, resulting in a disadvantage in the competition in the high-end market.

On the other hand, Honor has also failed to achieve a substantial breakthrough in the field of folding screens. As an emerging field in the smartphone industry, folding screen mobile phones represent the forefront of technology and innovation, and have also become a key battlefield for major brands to compete in the high-end market. The Magic V series of folding screen phones launched by Honor originally carried Honor's high hopes of impacting the high-end market.

However, this series of products failed to break through the technical blockade of the Huawei Mate series, and there is a gap with Huawei in the core technology of the folding screen, such as hinge design, screen crease control, and system optimization. This makes it difficult for the Magic V series to attract the attention of consumers in the market, and the sales volume is not satisfactory, which cannot open up the situation for Honor in the high-end market.

In short, problems such as technical shortcomings, brand building dilemmas, and bottlenecks in the folding screen business have made Honor gradually marginalized in the competition in the high-end market and missed good opportunities for development.

The competition in the domestic market is fierce in the low-end

It is undeniable that Honor is one of the kings in the field of low-end mobile phones, and there are not a few popular mobile phone models incubated.

以榮耀X50型號為例，其憑藉卓越的品質與強大的性能，贏得了廣大消費者的青睞與認可。自發佈以來，累計銷量已經突破了1500萬台，並且在市場上表現出色，十個月內就賣出了1000萬台。

In addition, the market share ranking of China's mobile phone market in the price segment below 1500 yuan in 0 years and 0 years: in the price range of 0 yuan to 0 yuan, the market share rankings from high to low are vivo, honor, Xiaomi, OPPO, Huawei, other brands and Apple; In the 0 yuan to 0 yuan price range, the rankings are vivo, honor, OPPO, Xiaomi, other brands, Huawei and Apple.

Although Glory is at the top, the situation is not easy. In the context of high-end obstruction, how to ensure the low-end market share has become the most important thing for Honor at this stage, but the low-end mobile phone market has already entered the stage of stock competition, and it is facing huge competitive pressure.

First, Huawei's strong return has brought a huge impact to the already fierce market competition pattern, further squeezing the market share of other brands, and Honor is the first to bear the brunt.

A number of low-end models launched by Huawei not only inherit Huawei's advantages in communication technology, but also incorporate some high-end technologies, making the products far superior to competitors in the same price segment in terms of performance and quality. For example, Huawei's Changxiang series of mobile phones, while maintaining a people-friendly price, are equipped with advanced imaging technology and a smooth Hongmeng system, attracting a large number of consumers who pursue cost-effectiveness.

Second, the haze of product homogenization envelops the entire low-end mobile phone market, and it is also difficult for Honor to get rid of the dilemma of product homogenization.

The low-end models of major brands such as Redmi, OPPO, and vivo are very similar in terms of appearance design, hardware configuration and functional characteristics, and lack unique competitive advantages. For example, in terms of fast charging technology, screen display technology, etc., Honor's low-end models do not have obvious advantages compared with competitors, which makes consumers tend to favor other brands when choosing.

Under the double blow of market turbulence and product homogenization, Honor's competitive pressure in the low-end mobile phone market is like a flood bursting in all directions, and the decline in sales has become a grim reality that Honor has to face.

Progress in overseas markets has been slow

China's smartphone market tends to be saturated, and domestic mobile phone manufacturers are accelerating their "volume" to go overseas.

第三方機構Counterpoint統計，2024年上半年國內主流手機廠商中，小米海外市場銷售佔比已達75%、OPPO達到58%、vivo也佔比48%，榮耀為32%。而到了2024年12月，榮耀的海外銷量佔比已突破50%，並在多地實現規模化盈利，已成為馬來西亞、新加坡和菲律賓等東南亞市場增長最快的品牌之一。

Although Honor has made some progress in overseas markets, it is facing many thorny challenges and bottlenecks from the perspective of the overall overseas market layout and development trend. In the early days of going overseas, Honor achieved rapid distribution with the help of Huawei's channels, but with the development of the business, the problem of insufficient systematization was gradually exposed.

First of all, the GMS (Google Mobile Services) pre-installed on some models is incomplete, which is a serious obstacle for overseas consumers who rely on Google's app ecosystem. After purchasing a mobile phone, many overseas users find that they cannot use common applications such as Google Maps and Google Mail normally, resulting in dissatisfaction with Honor products, which seriously affects the user experience and brand reputation.

Secondly, in terms of low-end models, Honor's cost-effective advantage is not obvious. Compared with competitors such as realme and Samsung A series, Honor's low-end models are not competitive in terms of hardware configuration, price, etc.

For example, realme has launched a series of low-end models with extreme cost performance as a selling point, and has performed well in terms of processor performance, camera configuration, battery capacity, etc.; Samsung's A series also occupies a certain share in the low-end market by virtue of its brand influence and stable product quality.

Moreover, there is a huge gap in brand awareness between Honor and mobile phone giants such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

Many overseas consumers have little understanding of the Honor brand, and even confuse it with other niche brands, and this lack of brand influence makes it difficult for Honor to promote and sell in overseas markets. In terms of market share, according to Canalys' data as of the third quarter of last year, the market share of Honor smartphones has not yet entered the top five in several major markets in Southeast Asia, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Xiaoyu-hsien

Honor mobile phones are currently in a dilemma of multi-faceted attacks.

On the high-end track, Honor is bound by the double shackles of technology and brand; In the domestic low-end market, the glory cost performance and innovation advantages of the once leader are no longer there, and the share has been greatly squeezed; In overseas markets, the brand influence is far less than that of Apple, Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi, and the expansion process is slow.

In the future, although Honor will catch the fast train of AI development, if it does not continue to make efforts in the research and development of high-end technologies, does not create differentiated advantages in low-end products, and does not promote refined operations in overseas markets. Then, it is not only difficult for Honor to stand out in the fiercely competitive mobile phone market, but also may be completely eliminated in the tide of the times and become a marginal role in the market.