On October 31st last year, Huawei and Apple held a press conference on the same day, where they faced off on multiple products such as computers and smartphones. On May 7th this year, Huawei and Apple once again engaged in a fierce competition in the field of tablets.
On the evening of May 7th, Apple held a special spring product launch event called "Let's Go" and released a new iPad Pro product, which is equipped with the new generation chip M4. On the same day, Huawei held an innovative product launch event in Dubai, releasing new MatePad tablets and other products. In addition to hardware, Huawei also released its self-developed tablet painting software, the "Born to Paint App," to further strengthen the competitiveness of tablets.
Apple Huawei's "Battle" Tablet
At the press conference held on May 7th, Apple released new iPad Pro and iPad Air products. Among them, iPad Pro is Apple's flagship tablet computer, which is its first update after more than a year.
According to Apple, the new iPad Pro is equipped with an upgraded chip from the M2 chip to the M4 chip, which increases CPU speed by up to 50% compared to the M2 chip of the previous generation iPad Pro.
Apple stated that the M4 chip adopts TSMC's 3nm process, mainly enhancing AI performance and upgrading the neural network engine to improve the speed of machine learning tasks, including video analysis, speech recognition, and image processing. The neural network engine has made the M4 a super powerful chip that can play with AI.
According to Apple's official website, the starting price for the 11 inch model of the new iPad Pro is 8999 yuan, while the starting price for the 13 inch model is 11499 yuan. Orders will be accepted at 9am on May 9th and will be released on May 15th.
In addition, Apple has also released a new iPad Air, which is available in both 11 inch and 13 inch versions and is equipped with a new M2 chip. According to Apple's official website, the starting price for the new iPad Air is 4799 yuan for an 11 inch model and 6499 yuan for a 13 inch model.
At the press conference, Apple also released a new handwriting pen, the Apple Pencil Pro. According to Apple, the Apple Pencil Pro can accurately capture every subtle action of the user through its built-in sensors and customized tactile engine, and convert these actions into precise strokes and feedback, achieving functions such as gentle pinching, lateral rotation, tactile feedback, and hovering. According to Apple's official website, the Apple Pencil Pro is priced at 999 yuan and will be released on May 15th.
At the press conference, Apple CEO Cook said, "This is a milestone since the birth of the iPad."
On the same day that Apple welcomed the "iPad milestone", Huawei held an innovative product launch event in Dubai, launching the MatePad 11.5-inch S tablet, equipped with a soft light eye protection screen and supporting M-Pencil star flashing stylus.
In terms of configuration, the Huawei MatePad 11.5-inch S tablet runs the HarmonyOS 4.2 operating system, supports star flashing function, and is equipped with a 13 million pixel rear camera and an 8 million pixel front facing camera. It is reported that the Huawei MatePad 11.5-inch S soft light screen version adopts anti glare nano etching technology, which can eliminate 99% interference light, reduce reflectivity by 60%, effectively reduce screen reflection and glare problems, and thus reduce visual fatigue.
In addition to hardware enhancements, Huawei has also launched a new self-developed painting software - the Tianshenghui Painting App. This software is carefully crafted by Huawei's professional team and can provide rich brush selection and various intelligent and convenient functions, enhancing MatePad's painting ability.
Nowadays, Huawei tablets have competed comprehensively with Apple in software, hardware, systems, and other aspects, steadily increasing their market share. According to a report released by IDC, an international data company, Huawei's share in the Chinese tablet market reached 30.8% in the fourth quarter of 2023, surpassing Apple to become the top seller in the Chinese tablet market. This is the first time since 2010 that China's quarterly tablet shipments have seen a replacement of the TOP1 brand.
IDC China Senior Research Manager Gan Miao stated that the technology trend in the Chinese tablet industry will focus on improving system software infrastructure, utilizing AI generation technology based on AIGC, and launching more intelligent system level combination products.
Screen iteration has given rise to opportunities in the industry chain
At present, the global tablet computer market is gradually recovering. According to Canalys, a technology market analysis firm, global tablet shipments increased by 1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, reaching 33.7 million units, marking the first growth after four consecutive quarters of declining sales.
Kamani Mukka, research manager at Canalys, said that after experiencing a difficult year in 2023, the tablet industry has made a good start in 2024, and the sales problem in the second half of the year will be further alleviated. Although consumers have long been cautious about tablet spending, manufacturers are still full of confidence. New players are constantly investing in this field, and leading manufacturers are also constantly innovating, trying to stimulate consumer interest and drive new use cases.
In the tablet market, Apple and Huawei's shipments are showing a trend of "one decrease and one increase". According to Canalys data, in the first quarter of 2024, Apple ranked first among global tablet brands with a shipment volume of 12 million units, occupying 36% of the market share. Huawei ranks third with a shipment volume of 2.735 million units and a market share of 8.1%. From the changes in shipment volume, Apple's shipment volume decreased by 13.9% in the first quarter, while Huawei's tablet shipment volume increased by 70.2%.
From the perspective of the Chinese market, IDC believes that with the clearance of mainstream brand inventory, driven by global technological development trends such as AI, and influenced by manufacturers' new product release plans, the Chinese tablet computer market is expected to experience growth in 2024.
The new iPad Pro launched by Apple this time is equipped with OLED screens, which has also given rise to new opportunities in the industry chain. Canalys believes that Apple's use of OLED screens on the iPad Pro marks a significant shift in the display technology preferences of leading manufacturers in tablets.
According to a research report by Tianfeng Securities, the sales of iPads with OLED screens adopted by Apple in 2024 are expected to become a test bench for the IT product OLED market, which may drive other manufacturers to mass produce OLED screen tablets.
According to Omdia data, the shipment volume of OLED panels for laptops reached 12.9 million in 2023, including 7.7 million for laptops and 5.2 million for tablets. The penetration rate of OLED in laptops is expected to reach 14% by 2028.
It is understood that both tablets and laptops require medium-sized OLED panels. In the production process of medium size OLEDs, foreign particles have a greater impact on the product yield, resulting in lower yield and higher prices. The high price has constrained the increase in penetration rate of mid size OLEDs, which is also the main reason why OLED laptops and tablets have a lower market share than LED laptops and tablets. However, with the iteration of technology, the yield of mid size OLEDs continues to improve. The 8.6 generation OLED panel production line, which is paired with mid size production, has entered a period of rapid layout, allowing the cost of mid size OLEDs to decrease and demonstrating stronger market competitiveness.
From the perspective of the industry chain, the upstream of the OLED industry chain includes material manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, and assembly parts, the midstream mainly includes panel manufacturing, and the downstream includes various terminal applications. OLED manufacturers often invest in equipment first, which will give rise to market space in the field of equipment. According to a research report by China Securities, OLED devices are the main source of cost for OLED panels. From the perspective of cost structure, OLED devices have the highest cost proportion in the entire industry chain, reaching 35.4%.
Specifically, OLED devices are divided into front-end devices, mid-range devices, and back-end devices. Among them, the front-end equipment mainly includes equipment for film forming, exposure, etching, peeling, cleaning, testing, etc., the back-end equipment mainly includes equipment for evaporation, deposition, packaging, etc., and the back-end equipment mainly includes equipment for chip wiring, bonding, testing, etc.
According to a research report by Tianfeng Securities, the technical threshold for the rear equipment is lower compared to the front and middle equipment, and it is expected to achieve localization replacement as soon as possible. Among domestic downstream equipment manufacturers, there are equipment suppliers such as Liande Equipment and Zhiyun Co., Ltd., equipment suppliers such as Liande Equipment and Zhiyun Co., Ltd., and testing equipment suppliers such as Jingce Electronics and Huaxing Yuanchuang.