Anxious! The first batch will increase the price by at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan
Author/IT Times reporter Sun Yan
Editor/Qian Lifu Sun Yan
2 million, 3 million, 4 million, 5 million! HUAWEI Mall, three folding mobile phone Mate XT reservation to 500,000 per day in the range of rising, if these reservations are converted into sales, Mate XT will directly outperform the first half of 2024 China folding screen mobile phone 4.43 million shipments.
At 11:20 on September 12, Huawei Mall showed that the number of reservations has reached 5.35 million people to book Mate XT. Successful reservation is equivalent to having the qualification to grab, and the opening time is 10:08 on September 20.
However, offline, the "IT Times" reporter asked more than a dozen Huawei stores in Shanghai, and almost all authorized experience stores said they could not make an appointment. Two directly-operated flagship stores said that the reservation channel had been closed, and they were not sure when to open the reservation again. Only the Smart Life Museum said it could make an appointment offline, but it was not clear when it would be available.
The "IT Times" reporter exclusively learned that the first batch of arrivals in Shanghai and Zhejiang may be less than 1,000 units, far less than the first batch of Huawei Mate 60 and Pura 70 series. Many Huawei dealers said that it is difficult to grab the three-fold screen online and offline, and the first batch can only be bought with a price increase of at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, which cannot completely avoid scalper speculation.
Only some smart living halls in Shanghai can be reserved
In Shanghai, only a few dozen of the larger smart living halls can be reserved offline, and the vast majority of Huawei authorized experience stores said they could not make reservations. The reporter checked on the "My Huawei" WeChat Mini Program and found that there are only 21 smart living halls in Shanghai, and not all smart living halls are open for offline reservations.
Nanjing East Road and Qiantan Taikoo Li, two of the few Huawei-owned flagship stores in Shanghai, both said they had closed the reservation channel and did not know when they would open again. "We opened one day on September 7, and the reservation quota was full."
"You can only make an appointment at the store. Now dozens of people have made an appointment, and we are not sure when it will be available. Now the reservations are basically selected for color and memory, so the probability will be higher." A number of Huawei Smart Life Museum staff told the "IT Times" reporter.
Mate XT is hot and hard to stop, and even offline experience prototypes need to be reserved. The reporter entered the "My Huawei" WeChat Mini Program on September 11 and found that the three-day experience time from September 11 to 13 has been sold out, and 23 flagship stores and smart life museums in Shanghai have shown that they have been full for three days.
Huawei Mate 60 and Pura 70 were also in short supply when they went on sale, but almost all offline stores can make reservations to queue up. This time, the shortage of Mate XT is even greater than before, and the channels have been narrowed as a result.
The first batch of arrivals in Shanghai and Zhejiang are less than 1,000 units
On the second-hand trading platform, scalpers have fried Mate XT to a sky-high price of 100,000 yuan. On September 11, the price has fallen, and the general price is 3-60,000 yuan. A scalper is offering 68,000 yuan, and a deposit of 20,000 yuan needs to be paid in advance, and the deposit is required to be non-refundable, limited to intra-city transactions, and must be activated in the store.
"The first batch of Huawei Mate XT can only be bought at a price increase of at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan." Almost all dealers estimate that the first batch of Mate XT will be at a premium, and the red version will be more expensive than the black version. The black version is estimated to sell for 3.5-3 8,000 yuan, and the red version is estimated to sell for 4-4.5 yuan. Even if the store adopts in-person activation and offline reservation, it cannot completely prevent scalpers from speculating.
"The first batch of goods in Shanghai is less than 1,000 units, and only 30 stores can get the goods. It is selected by Huawei based on historical sales and other data. Basically, they are all large stores over 400 or 500 square meters." A large Huawei distributor told the "IT Times" reporter that each store does not know how many goods can be received, and there are many people who book, so it is difficult to buy online and offline at first.
Another Huawei dealer estimated that the first batch of shipments in Zhejiang was less than 1,000 units. "Each store can get 8 to 10 units, and only some stores can get the goods," he said.
The reason for the premium is that the first batch of goods is insufficient. Taking Shanghai as a reference, the first batch of Huawei Mate 60 series arrived 30,000 units, the first batch of Huawei Pura 70 series arrived 10,000 units, and the Huawei three-fold screen Mate XT only arrived less than 1,000 units.
"Both online and offline sales will start on September 20, and two to three batches will arrive in September. By November, the shortage of goods will ease." Huawei dealers calculated based on past situations.
In July and August this year, Huawei cut prices twice in a row in January, with the Pura 70 cutting prices by up to 1,000 yuan and the Mate 60 cutting prices by up to 800 yuan. The outside world is speculating that the two rounds of price cuts may prepare for the launch of Huawei’s Mate 70 new machine. As a result, Huawei did not wait for the Mate 70, but waited for the triple-folding screen mobile phone.
Dealers told the truth. The first round of Huawei Pura 70 price cuts missed the best period such as the college entrance examination and 618, and the price reduction effect was not as good as expected, so there was the second round of Huawei Mate 60 price cuts. Dealers who were under pressure under the high growth target projected their hopes on Huawei’s triple-folding screen mobile phone, hoping to borrow a new machine to complete the annual profit target.
Huawei props up the folding screen half the sky
"From 1 to 3, from 3 to 1" is the main recognition of Huawei’s three-fold phone Mate XT. When fully unfolded, it is a mini PC that can be used with a foldable keyboard and mouse. It folds once to become a small-screen tablet, and when fully folded, it is a straight-screen phone.
Almost all the out-of-the-box evaluations are on display, so folded, so folded, all silky; look this way, look that way, one machine is multi-purpose.
"If it’s in stock, I’m willing to pay 50,000 yuan to get the first batch." A consumer who wants to buy a Huawei triple-folding screen phone at a premium believes that taking a normal-sized phone out of his pocket and turning it into a small tablet instantly is a "status symbol".
The triple-fold screen phone selects a precise enough audience – rich middle-aged men, or bosses.
As a result, Huawei Mate XT produces a premium space of 10,000 yuan, even Apple is envious, only 10 years ago iPhone can do it. According to the "IT Times" reporter observed that in recent years, the first scalpers to patronize iPhone have become increasingly rare, and the first iPhone premium space is only about 1,000 yuan.
On September 10, Huawei and Apple released new phones on the same day. Huawei did not release the Mate 70, but chose to release a three-fold screen mobile phone. The differentiated audience and explicit technological breakthroughs gave Huawei the confidence to "compete on the same stage".
This year, Huawei has released three folding screen mobile phones. In March, Huawei’s "second princess" Yao Anna brought the goods to Pocket2, which made the industry’s first small folding mobile phone that supports two-way Beidou satellite messaging popular. On August 6, the small folding screen mobile phone nova Flip was officially released, and the price of the folding screen was hit from 10,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan.
The small folding screen mobile phone wins by price, but it is learned from the dealer that Huawei’s small folding screen sales are not as good as the large folding screen, and the profit gap is even greater.
Honor CEO Zhao Ming admitted that the price of the folding screen will reach 5,000 yuan, and shipments will need to reach more than one million units to achieve break-even.
IDC report shows that in the second quarter of 2024, China’s folding screen mobile phone sales increased by 104.6% year-on-year, and the total shipment reached 2.57 million units. Among them, Huawei ranked first with a market share of 41.7%, and vivo and Honor ranked second and third with a share of 23.1% and 20.9% respectively. That is to say, Huawei’s folding screen mobile phone sales exceeded 1 million units in a single quarter. In the second half of the year, Huawei may once again open the gap with the second echelon and sit firmly on the throne of the first place in the folding screen market.
Since the launch of the first folding-screen mobile phone in 2019, China’s folding-screen mobile phone market has grown by more than 100% for four consecutive years, maintaining high growth. It is rumored that Apple will not launch a folding-screen mobile phone until 2026, so domestic mobile phones do not need to "overtake on a curve", but directly find the opportunity to "overtake on a different lane".
Typography/Ji Jiaying
Picture/IT Times Xianyu Huawei Dongfang IC