At the Huawei Developer Conference HDC2024, Huawei’s Executive Director Yu Chengdong announced that HarmonyOS NEXT will be officially commercialized in the fourth quarter together with the Huawei Mate 70 series. This is the first time that Huawei officially revealed the exact release time of the Mate 70 series. Not long after, the well-known whistleblower “Digital Chat Station” revealed that the Huawei Mate 70 series is expected to be released in “mid-to-late fourth quarter of 2024.” Based on information from multiple sources, it can be basically determined that the release time of the Huawei Mate 70 series is tentatively scheduled for November, but there is a possibility of postponement to December.
Compared to the August 29 release date of the Huawei Mate 60 series, the Huawei Mate 70 series was released about 2-3 months later. According to sources, the delay may be to ensure that the Mate 70 series can be smoothly adapted to HarmonyOS NEXT, which requires a lot of preparation. For Huawei fans, this news may be mixed; for Apple, it seems to be good news.
Looking back at the release time of the iPhone over the past decade, with a few exceptions, the iPhone launch conference is generally scheduled in September every year. Therefore, the 2024 iPhone 16 series can be said to be very lucky because the release time of its main competitor, the Huawei Mate 70 series, has been delayed. This means that the Apple launch conference in September may no longer face direct competitive pressure from Huawei.
The annual Spring Festival Gala is gone?
For Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, Apple has always been an insurmountable peak. Although Apple’s pace of hardware innovation has slowed down in recent years, it is still one of the most influential mobile phone brands in the world. Among Chinese manufacturers, Huawei’s strength should not be underestimated. For a long time, Huawei has regarded challenging Apple as its primary goal.
Since 2022, as the update rhythm of Huawei’s flagship mobile phones has normalized, Huawei’s Mate series has begun to target Apple’s iPhone. In 2022, the Huawei Mate 50 series was released at 14:30 on September 6, followed by the iPhone 14 series at 1 am on September 8. In 2023, the Huawei Mate 60 series was released at the end of August through the Pioneer Program, and the Extraordinary Master Edition was launched at the full-scenario launch conference in late September; while the iPhone 15 series was released on September 15 and officially went on sale on September 22.
Obviously, there is a high degree of overlap between the release dates of Huawei’s Mate series and Apple’s iPhone. Considering the market positioning and competitive relationship between the two parties, this “coincidence” in time is not accidental. In fact, with the direct competition between Huawei and Apple, the Huawei and Apple press conferences in 2022 and 2023 have been jokingly called “Technology Spring Festival Gala” by many netizens, becoming the focus of industry attention.
However, the situation in 2024 is different. According to current information, the Huawei Mate 70 series is expected to be released in November, while the Apple iPhone 16 series will be released in September as usual. This means that the new product launches of the two companies are about two months apart. Even if the two sides still have a competitive relationship, the popularity of the “Tech Spring Festival Gala” may not be as high as in previous years.
No rival
Although Apple has not yet officially announced the exact release and sales time of the iPhone 16 series, it is foreseeable that throughout September, there will be almost no products on the market that can compete with Apple’s new phones. Especially in the Chinese market, the iPhone 16 series is expected to have a more favorable competitive environment than last year’s iPhone 15 series.
In September 2023, the launch of Huawei’s Mate 60 series caused a sensation in the domestic smartphone market, even overshadowing the iPhone 16. According to data from the Tenth Economic Observation Room, Huawei’s mobile phone sales in the Chinese market reached 11.46 million units in the fourth quarter of last year, a year-on-year increase of 79.3%. In contrast, Apple’s mobile phone sales were 15 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.6%, and sales decreased by about 1.78 million units.
This year, among the five major domestic mobile phone manufacturers, vivo and OPPO may be the first to release new products, with the release time expected to be October, and Xiaomi will be later, at the end of October. Huawei’s Mate 70 series is expected to be released in November, while OPPO and Honor’s flagship models will be released even later. This means that when these domestic flagship phones are released, Apple’s iPhone 16 series will have already ended the first sales stage, and the impact of domestic flagship phones on the iPhone 16 series will be far less than that on the iPhone 15 series last year.
Currently available information
According to recent leaks, Apple’s upcoming iPhone 16 series will see some changes in screen size, heat dissipation design, and camera configuration. In particular, the iPhone 16 Pro model may see an increase in display size, while the standard iPhone 16 model will remain the same size.
Specifically, the display size of the iPhone 16 Pro is expected to increase from the current 6.1 inches to 6.3 inches, while the larger iPhone 16 Pro Max is expected to expand from 6.7 inches to 6.9 inches. In order to cope with the heat dissipation problem caused by the increase in screen size, Apple is developing a new heat dissipation design. The basic iPhone 16 may adopt a graphene thermal management system, while the iPhone 16 Pro may be equipped with a metal battery casing.
In terms of camera configuration, the iPhone 16 series has also been adjusted. The basic version of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will adopt a vertical pill-shaped dual-camera design, while the high-end iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will continue to use the past three-lens camera arrangement. It is particularly noteworthy that Apple plans to equip the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max with ultra-wide-angle lenses with up to 48 million pixel sensors, which is a significant improvement over the current iPhone 15 Pro’s 12 million pixels.
In terms of battery capacity, the battery capacity of the standard iPhone 16 is expected to increase from 3349mAh in the iPhone 15 to 3561mAh, while the battery capacity of the iPhone 16 Plus is expected to decrease from 4383mAh in the iPhone 15 Plus to 4006mAh. As for the battery capacity of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, it may increase from 4422mAh in the iPhone 15 Pro Max to 4676mAh. However, the specific battery parameters of the iPhone 16 Pro have not yet been disclosed.
Summarize
In the past year, Apple has felt unprecedented pressure in the smartphone market. Intensified competition from Chinese mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi has had a direct impact on Apple’s sales and revenue. However, with the upcoming iPhone 16 series, Apple seems to be able to take a breather for the time being.
However, this year’s situation is special. Huawei’s delay in releasing its new flagship phone is mainly due to the need to adapt to the pure-blooded Hongmeng system, and Huawei’s competitive relationship with Apple has not weakened. In fact, Huawei still regards Apple as its main competitor and is committed to catching up in future products. This means that in 2025 and beyond, Apple will continue to face fierce competition from Huawei.
For Apple, simply relying on the delayed release of its competitors is not a long-term solution. To maintain its leading position in future competition, Apple needs to achieve more breakthrough progress in technological innovation.
