Full Fire: Huawei'S Three Major Battlefields And Multiple Battles

The Huawei full connection conference in 2020 is somewhat different from previous years.

First of all, in terms of ICT capability demonstration, in recent years, AI and cloud computing are the themes of the full connection conference, and the key technologies Huawei is laying out are displayed. From the appearance of Huawei cloud, Kunpeng chip, shengteng chip and mindspot deep learning framework to the landing of atlas computing platform, Huawei has planned the full stack route of AI and emphasized its ambition in computing power.

However, this year's conference is not a technology release in specific fields, but focuses on intelligent and digital solutions for government and enterprise markets and all walks of life, or "soft" products oriented to b-end systems, such as the agent proposed by Huawei.

On the other hand, from the point of time, as the core meeting of Huawei in the second half of the year, the full connection conference happened to be held after the third ban in the United States, and it has a different meaning. This is also the first time that Huawei executives directly communicate with Chinese and foreign media on topics such as chips, supply chain and personnel flow after the latest ban.

Guo Ping, chairman of Huawei's rotating chairman, said in an interview with reporters such as the 21st century economic report that "the third amendment of legal sanctions in the United States has indeed brought great difficulties to our production and operation. Specifically, chips (reserves) are not stored until September 15, and the specific data are still in the evaluation process. 2B business, including base stations, is relatively sufficient. Mobile phone reserves are still actively looking for ways. We also know that many American companies are actively applying to the US government. "

The latest regulation, which came into effect on September 15, has directly restricted Huawei's purchase of products based on us software and technology, among which the supply of chips has the most serious impact.

This series of evolution has pushed Huawei into three major battlefields. If the U.S. crackdown is an encounter and protracted war for Huawei, then the competition between Huawei and apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and oppo is the front battlefield. The digital market of government enterprises and industries focused on in this conference is a circuitous battle and supply war for Huawei.

Encounter and Breakthrough: how to deal with the three prohibitions?

The so-called encounter war is initiated by the other side. For more than a year, the United States issued three rounds of bans. In the first round, Huawei's U.S. semiconductor suppliers and core software suppliers were mainly targeted. In the second round, global semiconductor manufacturers outside the United States, especially chip foundry factories such as TSMC, were further restricted. On the basis of the second round, the third round directly blocked the supply of products containing US software and technology.

In the face of sanctions, Huawei can neither choose its rivals nor avoid them. Under constant pressure, Huawei has always maintained a "wartime state", which is a battlefield doomed to be deeply hurt by both sides. As for sanctions, Guo Ping also said in an interview that this will greatly restrict chip sales of American enterprises, and will also restrict semiconductor enterprises outside the United States. For example, it may cause Japanese enterprises to lose as much as 1 trillion yen. "If the U.S. government allows, Huawei is still willing to buy products from American companies, and will continue to adhere to the global and diversified procurement strategy. I also noticed that Qualcomm said that they were applying to the U.S. government for an export license, and if they did, we would be happy to use Qualcomm chips to make mobile phones. "

Although Huawei has expressed its willingness to cooperate, the reality is still that US companies such as Qualcomm have been unable to supply goods for a long time. Some manufacturers in Japan, South Korea and China are also subject to the ban and can not supply goods for Huawei. In addition to Qualcomm, MediaTek, TSMC, Meguiar, Samsung and other enterprises have also submitted applications for permission.

In a large number of uncertainties, it also led to Huawei's frontal battlefield blocked. For example, the 5g base station business market share has been vied for, but Huawei has a strong base station reserve. Societe Generale Securities said that through the industrial chain research, Huawei is now well stocked with 7Nm chips and parts at the base station, which is expected to support the business development for several years. On the other hand, the terminal business with mobile phones as the core is the most affected. Both chips and systems are stuck. According to some insiders, Huawei's latest 5nm mobile phone chip Kirin 9000 has a stock volume of about 10 million pieces. Since then, how the external environment will change is still unknown.

In order to survive, Huawei has also launched breakthroughs in various fields, including Hongmeng operating system, HMS ecology, strengthening supply chain, etc. In terms of mobile ecology, Zhang Ping'an, President of cloud services for Huawei's consumer business, said that the number of global developers who have joined the HMS ecosystem has reached 1.8 million, and 96000 applications have integrated HMS core. "It is not easy to make up your mind to build a new ecosystem. Facing the enormous pressure and challenges since last year, Huawei has chosen to take a step forward rather than a half step backward. "

According to the 21st century economic report, Huawei is vigorously recruiting software engineers at home and abroad, and Hisilicon employees are also working on software.

For the supply chain, Guo Ping said: "Huawei has a strong chip design capability, and we are willing to help reliable supply chains enhance their chip manufacturing, equipment and material capabilities. Helping them is also helping us."

In addition, an important basis for the breakthrough is talent. Guo Ping said that the company's human, financial and business development is basically stable, and Huawei's human resources policy will be stable for some time to come. "Turning sand into chips requires excellent talents, and the company will continue to absorb excellent talents, who can solve Huawei's problems. As for the individual market situation, it will be adjusted according to the business. "

Detour supply: how big is the government enterprise digital market?

As the encounter is very fierce and the competition in front of the battlefield is increasing, Huawei has begun to rush into the digital market of government and enterprises. The digital transformation process of government affairs and all walks of life is inseparable from ICT infrastructure, and Huawei has participated in it early. However, with Huawei's high-intensity entry, the digital and intelligent market has become a fierce competition for space. However, this may be a choice Huawei has to make. Under pressure, it will speed up the expansion of b-end business and supplement food for itself.

Don't forget that Huawei has enterprise business and growing cloud business in addition to mobile phone and 5g equipment business, among which enterprise business is also the third business segment in Huawei's revenue. Peng Zhongyang, director of Huawei and President of BG, said that in the future development of intelligent society, it is urgent to build a new paradigm of digital transformation of the industry. The business essence of the digital era is to make a big cake, a positive sum game, not a zero sum game.

How big is the cake? Guo Ping mentioned in his speech that, taking China as an example, the added value of China's digital economy accounted for about one-third of GDP last year, but its contribution to growth reached two-thirds. New digital demands from the government and enterprises are constantly emerging.

Next, Huawei will continue to increase its investment in the domestic market. It should be noted that the digitalization and intellectualization of government and enterprises involves a wide range of fields. It not only needs the support of the underlying hardware, but also more importantly a more "soft" solution, that is, the software part of the b-end. In terms of hardware, there is already a mature infrastructure in China, including the original communication equipment, data center, etc., as well as some new infrastructure areas in progress. For Huawei, Intel's server CPU can still supply Huawei. In terms of b-end chip, Huawei has less pressure than C-end.

Therefore, Huawei can accelerate the expansion of b-end software applications, operating systems, or collectively referred to as solutions. A software practitioner told the 21st century economic report: "at present, in the digital market of domestic government and enterprise, there are no solution giants such as SAP and salesforce. On the whole, domestic enterprises still innovate on the windows platform. The enterprise market needs a new paradigm and new forces to access. Huawei has its advantages, including management mode, understanding of China's market, heavy asset base, b-end experience, and so on. "

At the full connection conference, Huawei officially released the agent. Huawei said that this is the first systematic reference architecture proposed by the industry for the upgrading of government and enterprise intelligence. Using this set of intelligent system, the whole scene wisdom experience can be brought to urban governance, enterprise production and residents' life.

From the perspective of government affairs and cities, agents can help cities upgrade from "functional" to "intelligent", just like the intelligent evolution of mobile phones. For example, Shenzhen and Huawei announced the co construction of Pengcheng agent, and promoted the construction of Shenzhen smart city by creating a city level integrated intelligent collaborative system with deep learning ability. Chen Rugui, mayor of Shenzhen City, also attended the opening ceremony in Shanghai, which is the platform of Huawei. At this conference, senior government and enterprise executives from many cities attended the full connection conference to explore digital application.

In terms of industry, Wang Tao, Huawei's managing director, introduced financial agents and transportation agents. "For example, the 5g intelligent navigation lights we are piloting can realize real-time connection and low delay communication with tens of thousands of navigation lights in the airport. The lights can guide the taxiing of aircraft and improve the running efficiency. For the construction of transportation industry agents, Wi Fi 6, 5g and adn are the key solutions. "

With the addition of Huawei, whether the vertical industry's operating system, software and hardware integration solutions can open up a new paradigm, and even whether it can form a Chinese standard with its partners, is worth continuing to observe.