After two years, Huawei and Apple's annual flagships were released in the same month again. At Apple's 2022 spring new product launch conference, with Cook's familiar "Good Morning", a number of new products such as the iPhone 14 series debuted. Just one day ago, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG, took the stage and brought the milestone of the Mate series in ten years, the new generation of Huawei Mate50 series, and the iPhone 14 series. This is probably the most powerful and best-looking "Science and Technology Spring Festival Gala" in history.

There is no doubt that behind the attention of the Huawei Mate50 series and the iPhone14 series is the competition of Huawei and Apple's innovative strength and ability to lead the development of the mobile phone industry. We can't help but ask, who is the king of "black technology" between Huawei Mate50 and iPhone14 series?

｜Chip battle

The iPhone 14 and Mate 50 also released 4 models, but Cook adopted a different strategy from the past. On the standard version of the iPhone 14, the previous generation A15 chip was used, and the 4nm A16 chip was only used on the Pro version. .

The same is true for Huawei's Mate50 series. Except for the Mate50E, which uses the 778G chip, the rest of the models use Qualcomm's latest 8Gen1 chip. Unfortunately, it still does not support 5G networks, but fortunately, it can be equipped with an external mobile phone communication shell.

Mate50 and iPhone14 released the "satellite communication" function at the same time. Although this function is not new, it is the first time that it has been popularized on smartphones. However, compared with the domestic market, Huawei's advantage is naturally larger.

Because Huawei uses the Beidou navigation system, while the iPhone uses the old and American GPS system. In view of the current relationship between the two parties, it is still unknown whether this function can be launched in the Chinese market. This feature is not supported.

Huawei doesn't mention Qualcomm's chip at all, because the current Android flagships are equipped with this chip, and other mobile phone manufacturers have already introduced it in detail. The reason for the introduction is also very simple. There is no rival in the chip performance competition, and the performance improvement is not obvious.

Another point is that only the Pro version can upgrade the chip. This kind of differentiation is also the first time, which is equivalent to forcing consumers to spend a high price on the high-end version. If you mention too much, it will have a negative effect on subsequent sales, allowing users to It is a wise choice to comprehend for yourself.

There are natural reasons for Apple to do this. Affected by chip restrictions, TSMC has continuously raised the price of chip foundries, especially 4nm chips. Although the performance improvement is limited, the price is much higher. If the standard version of the iPhone 14 is also If the A16 chip is adopted, the price must also be increased. It is easy to discourage people from seeing the high price.

This is good news for Huawei. Huawei's Mate50 has more advantages in price. Qualcomm's newly upgraded chip is almost the same as the previous generation of A15. More importantly, the chip on the mobile phone is 7nm. In the era, there has been a situation of excess performance, so whether it is 4nm or 5nm, the effect that can be achieved is similar.

｜The challenge of mobile phone chips

In the second quarter of this year, in the context of a 9% year-on-year decline in global smartphone shipments, China's domestic mobile phone shipments in the first half of the year fell by 21.7% year-on-year, far exceeding the global decline, making China the one with the strongest chill. Qualcomm is extremely embarrassed to curry favor with China.

Secondly, MediaTek behind it is catching up.

The high-end chip Dimensity 9000 launched by MediaTek is significantly better than the Snapdragon 8Gen1 in terms of performance. Its serious heat generation and general performance directly affect its reputation. For example, domestic manufacturers including OPPO, vivo, Honor, Xiaomi and other domestic manufacturers have begun to use MediaTek Dimensity. 9000.

At the same time, in the US Android smartphone SoC market sales list in April this year, Qualcomm occupied the first place with a 47% share, followed by MediaTek with 45%. gap.

The above two directly affect the chip business, which constitutes 85% of revenue.

In addition to Android phones, there is also Apple. Qualcomm charges a patent fee of 5% of the selling price. According to estimates, Apple will contribute more than $5.5 billion in chipset revenue to Qualcomm in 2021, accounting for about 16% of Qualcomm’s 2021 fiscal year, while This part of the income is reflected in the QCL (technology patent license) and QCT (chip) ends respectively.

And this is what Qualcomm is most worried about, and now the biggest source of income is getting rid of Qualcomm step by step. Qualcomm CFO Akash Palshiwala has said that Apple is expected to use only 20% of Qualcomm 5G modems in iPhone models shipped in 2023.

As early as 2019, Apple had bought the R&D team of 5G baseband chips from Intel, and in March 2021, it was announced that it planned to invest 1 billion euros in Germany to research 5G and wireless technologies, and will also build Europe in Munich. Chip Design Center.

For Apple, which is pursuing full self-research to achieve high profits, it is only a matter of time before it gets rid of Qualcomm. The market generally expects that Apple's 5G baseband will be commercialized in 2023.

In contrast to Huawei, the lack of 5G functions may also affect some consumers’ purchase of Huawei mobile phones. Although the Mate50 series has a matching 5G mobile phone case to support 5G, some consumers may still mind the actual experience. Although Huawei's position in the Chinese smartphone market cannot be replaced, it also faces many challenges.