Of course everyone probably have heard of the in September announced new iPhones, namely iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. These new models of iPhone as always have great new features, for example wireless inductive charging. Unfortunately for the iPhone X you have to be patient for a while (release on November 3), but the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are already available (release date September 22). There are also rumors about a new model of Samsung (Samsung Galaxy S9), but Samsung hasn’t give an official presentation. Monday (Oct 16) there was the presentation of Huawei, the third biggest smartphone company with a market share of almost 10%. In comparison, the market share of Apple on the smartphone market is 12,1%. In Munich Huawei present their newest model, the Huawei Mate 10.
They present two versions, namely the normal Huawei Mate 10 and the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. In this blog only the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is highlighted. Of course this phone has a fingerprint scanner, this is placed on the back of the phone. Also interesting is the enormous battery capacity, the battery capacity is 4.000 mAh. This battery capacity is significantly bigger than that of the Iphone X (2716 mAh). The Pro also is water resistant, you can take it underwater for 30 minutes up to 1,5 meter. Impressive also is the internal storage of 128 GB and 6 GB of RAM.
The most interesting part of the Phone is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), interestingly it is the first AI smartphone. The phone is powered by the Kirin 970 chip, this chip comes with a Neural Processing Unit(NPU) for AI. The combination with machine learning via the NPU makes the Kirin 970 25 times faster and 50 percent more efficient than a regular chip. Huawei promises that the so-called augmented reality apps will wasting less battery.
The NPU can offer a smarter software experience, for example when you are playing a game and you get a notification, the phone will suggest split-screen mode. Even cooler are the options with the camera, the camera recognize objects in real time. This allows the camera to tune photos to certain presets. In my opinion this is a great first step for the future, hopefully they can develop this.
Huawei want to be the biggest in five years and in the field of technology I think they made a great first step with the implementation of AI. For now I should choose for the new iPhone instead of the new Huawei, because I think the new iPhone for now have more great features to offer. Also this AI is in the beginning phase and in the near future the AI will have to prove how good it really works. I think it is fair to say that Huawei did a great job with this phone (especially the internal storage and RAM is impressive) and it is interesting to follow of Huawei indeed will be the biggest in five years from now. What do you think, is it possible to beat Apple and Samsung for Huawei in the coming years?
The video in this link gives more details about the Huawei Mate 10 and the Huawei Mate 10 Pro and also show the AI options of the camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8qvDHnWQOE
Interested in the new Huawei phone? The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is available on November 23 in the Netherlands for a price of €799.
References:
Gondhia, N. (2017). Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro hands-on! Retrieved from https://www.androidauthority.com/huawei-mate-10-pro-review-807465/
De Looper, C. (2017). Huawei Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro are here with some strange differences. Retrieved from https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/huawei-mate-10-news/
Rahanmetan, C. (2017). Huawei Mate 10 Lite en Mate 10 Pro officieel: nieuw tijdperk voor Huawei. Retrieved from https://androidworld.nl/nieuws/huawei-mate-10-pro-officieel/
Wiggers, K. (2017). iPhone X vs. iPhone 8 vs. iPhone 8 Plus: What are the differences? Retrieved from https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-x-vs-iphone-8-vs-iphone-8-plus/
Woudt, J. (2017). Nog vijf jaar en dan wil Huawei de grootste zijn. Retrieved from https://fd.nl/ondernemen/1222764/nog-vijf-jaar-en-dan-wil-huawei-de-grootste-zijn
Interesting post Ruben! Thank you for sharing. First of all, some comments on promising features of the Huawei Mate Pro 10. The fist thing, which is appealing to me, is the battery capacity as described in your blog. In my opinion, battery life times become more and more important in the smartphone industry. Applications and functions of smartphones ask for more and more battery. However, for me a very relevant question is, is the overall life time of the battery. For example, most iPhone batteries, Lithium-ion batteries, work very well in the first months of usage. Afterwards, an iPhone battery does not last very long. If Huawei have a much better battery, this would increase my interest in their devices very much.
As you described in your blog, the most interesting part of the phone is the Artificial Intelligence system in the phone. In particular, the AI implementation in the usage of the camera of the phone. Recognition of real life objects, and providing information on these objects can really change the way of doing business. Searching on Wikipedia for the name of a monument, or looking as a electrician for the name of a specific wire, becomes much easier if the camera recognises these things. Of course, as you also mention, this AI implementation should be more developed. However, this it is really promising.
As my mobile phone contract expires in June 2018, I am really interested in the recent developments of the smartphone market. Due to this blog, I have done and will do more research on the new device of Huawei. The question which you ask in your blog, is whether Huawei will beat Apple and Samsung. Huawei is doing is good job with the introduction of the new phones. However, new technologies are not the only aspects which matter in choosing between phones. Especially the strength of brand names of Apple and Samsung will remain their leading positions in the smartphone market in the western world. However, this could change of course, as we look at the example of Blackberry. Besides this, Huawei is becoming very big in Asia. Since the market is developing very fast there, their overall market share, combining with the introducing of lower priced high quality products may lead to a new number one in the smartphone market worldwide (Shepard, 2016). However, I doubt it whether this will happen in the next five years.
Shepard, W. (2016, May 25). China’s Huawei ‘Growing Up’ To Become The World’s No. 1 Smartphone Brand. Opgehaald van Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/05/25/chinas-huawei-growing-up-to-become-the-worlds-number-one-smartphone-brand/#2c81c533adff