Author: Zhou Yuan/Wall Street News
On September 10th, Huawei launched a new category of foldable screen - the Huawei Mate XT, with a marketing name &#34;华为 Mate XT&#34;.
On July 15th, Richard Yu revealed in a live broadcast that the Huawei Mate XT has been in development for 5 years and is about to be released. &#34;The next generation of foldable screens, others can think of it, but can't make it. We have been thinking about it for five years, and it's finally about to come out,&#34; Richard Yu said.
On September 7th, Wall Street News exclusively learned from multiple channels in the supply chain that the stock of Huawei Mate XT is about 1 million units. &#34;Based on the plans we have received, the total stock is about 1 million units,&#34; a source from the supply chain told Wall Street News. &#34;The hinge structure components of this new foldable category are supplied by Yihao Metal.&#34;
Wall Street News understands that the hinge structure components provided by Yihao Metal are most likely the pivot of the foldable device.
Public information shows that the parent company of Yihao Metal is Yian Technology (300328.SZ), with the full name &#34;Dongguan Yihao Metal Material Technology Co., Ltd.&#34;, established in 2014.
In the consumer electronics field, especially in foldable screen mobile phone hinges, car lock covers, audio, musical instruments, and medical devices, Yihao Metal has achieved mass production; its main customers include various domestic smartphone manufacturers, as well as Tesla.
Among the products mass-produced by Yihao Metal are amorphous alloy precision structural components.
These components have been used in industrial products such as new energy vehicles and consumer electronic structural components, with performance far exceeding stainless steel and titanium alloys. Yihao Metal has pioneered the industrialization of large-scale amorphous alloys in China, promoting the development of liquid metal applications in multiple functions, fields, and dimensions.
Amorphous alloy, also known as metallic glass or liquid metal, is a type of metal material with an amorphous structure. Unlike traditional crystalline metals with long-range ordered atomic arrangements, this metal has a short-range ordered but long-range disordered atomic structure similar to a liquid. This characteristic of amorphous alloys is typically obtained by rapid cooling molten metal to prevent crystallization.
Amorphous alloys have unique physical and chemical properties, such as high strength, high hardness, good corrosion resistance, and magnetism.
Currently, Huawei not only dominates the foldable screen category in China but has also surpassed Samsung globally, becoming the leader in the foldable device market.
According to the &#34;2024 Foldable Screen Smartphone Market and Consumer Trends Research Report&#34; released by iiMedia Research, in the first half of 2024, the Chinese foldable screen smartphone market presents a &#34;one pole, multiple strong&#34; trend.
The report states that as the earliest manufacturer to cover horizontal inward fold, horizontal outward fold, and vertical fold in all forms, Huawei still occupies a dominant position, holding a 42% market share; in the ultra-high-end market above 10,000 RMB, Huawei's share reaches 67%.
According to the Counterpoint report, in the first quarter of 2024, the global foldable screen smartphone growth rate reached 49%, the highest peak in the past 6 quarters. Among the top four brands, three are from China (Motorola, Huawei, Honor), and Huawei has surpassed Samsung to become the global leader in foldable screen smartphone sales
Except for Apple, which has not yet launched a foldable screen category, all other smartphone manufacturers are participating in this market competition, especially domestic phone manufacturers are the most active, with different strategies.
In 2024, as the supply chain gradually converges, Honor will make the thinnest horizontal foldable screen globally, OPPO and vivo are pursuing the imaging effects of flat-panel machines, and Xiaomi's latest vertical foldable design wins in form. Each company is trying to use foldable screens as a tool to impact the high-end market, but none have been able to break Huawei's market dominance.
Since the current foldable phone designs in the domestic market are all folding once horizontally or vertically, the market acceptance and prospects for Huawei's upcoming triple-fold horizontal foldable screen, which folds twice, are mixed.
Huawei seems very confident about this, with an initial stock of up to 1 million units.
The Huawei Mate XT adopts an internal and external folding design, with a thickness of the body - 12.8 mm in single-screen mode; 7.45 mm/4.75 mm in dual-screen mode; 3.6 mm/3.6 mm/4.75 mm in triple-screen mode, equipped with dual hinges, and a weight of about 306g including the weight of the screen surface layer (source: Huawei official website).
The challenges faced by triple-fold products mainly include folding thickness, hinge durability, folding marks, as well as the optimization of software adaptation and interaction between the large screen and the external screen.
It is obvious that the Huawei Mate XT is highly innovative and may revolutionize the form and experience of smartphones. The stock of 1 million units indicates Huawei's high confidence in this new product category, but whether it can achieve Huawei's wishes still needs market validation

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