Laptops – a category of products that once commanded the attention of media and consumer alike however, global shipments have declined for seven consecutive years. Many journalist and industry observers have written at length expressing their lack of confidence in the product category, with some even expressing that it’s a product of a sunset industry.
One could say that the rise of smartphones and mobile connectivity has driven PC manufacturers into some kind rivalry that is akin to what we refer to as “ecological competition” in nature, where members of the same species compete for food and resources within the same living space. Recently, new players joined the fray, each bringing new capabilities and interpretations of insights into consumer wants. It would seem that it is yet too soon to write off this particular subset of the PC industry. Huawei jumped on the opportunity.
In 2018, Huawei’s PC business grew more than four times the rate of the period prior. In the first three quarters of 2019, it grew 214% year-on-year. The latest HUAWEI Matebook D is a product of Huawei’s unrelenting pursuit to satisfy consumer demands, delivering novel features and user experiences.
Huawei Share, a solution born from consumer insights into the ecosystem
For the past decade or perhaps even longer, the laptop market was dominated by a handful of established players, they have been locked in a heated battle trying to one up each other with new products that are bigger, lighter and work for longer than the rest. This competition has driven the industry to a dead end, one that allows for little innovation that actually improves the user experience. Without taking consumer demands into consideration, it’s only natural that innovation stagnate. This is also one of the reasons why growth has been declining over the past few years.
Inspired by its smartphone business, Huawei gleaned its consumer insights into the PC market using a completely different approach. Huawei reckons that the full user experience is beyond what size, battery life and performance can deliver. In a whole where smartphones have practically become part of consumers’ lives, notebooks are no longer a hub of activity, but rather an engine for mobile productivity. And when consumers’ demands for productivity are not addressed, we can see why the experience that many of today notebooks deliver isn’t up to snuff.
In daily work, transferring files between smartphones and PCs has always been a hassle. The incompatibility between the two platforms is so apparent that even if we use two versions of the same app on a PC and a smartphone, there’s still a disconnection between the user experiences. In the worst-case scenario, even with the help from cloud storage and real-time synchronisation, it’s still possible for some users to lose precious data or work progress while working across platforms.
Huawei Share Multi-screen Collaboration between PC and smartphones is the perfect solution to address the biggest issue plaguing the PC user experience and bring about an elevated user experience. With Huawei Share, PCs cease to be a category of its own. Instead, it’s one of the access points that take users to a unified multi-device experience. If done right, this cross-platform solution could herald a new generation of PCs that are more consistent with consumers’ behaviours today.
Technological advances can bring transformative changes to even laptops
The HUAWEI MateBook D features the new Multi-screen Collaboration feature – or one could even say it’s a new experience. With Huawei Share, the laptop can show the Home screen of the smart device in a picture-in-picture window. Everything is in sync – you can send files such as images and documents between the devices by dragging and dropping; type in chat apps on the mobile phone using your laptop peripherals; or even attach PC files to an email draft and blast it out from the smartphone app. Everything works as naturally and intuitively as if it is natively run. With this new feature, trivial tasks that used to take minutes to complete now just need a second or two, tops.
In short, Huawei Share Multi-screen Collaboration is based on distributed technology. Developed to address the consumer demands Huawei identified, this feature not only enables file transfers, but also lets users share many features that were previously unique to one device across multiple devices, delivering a true cross-platform experience.
Since Huawei entered the notebook market in 2016, it has consistently pushed the envelope and delivered exciting new innovations to consumers. For instance, The HUAWEI FullView Display in HUAWEI MateBook X Pro has become one of its defining characteristics. The HUAWEI Shark Fin Fans in HUAWEI MateBook 13 come in an aerodynamic shape like shark fins, featuring higher fan speed and air output compared to conventional fans for greater cooling performance.
It’s not hard to see that Huawei’s ecosystem is slowly coming together. Huawei is clearly adept at addressing consumers’ demands with capabilities afforded by its ecosystem. The Huawei Share Multi-screen Collaboration instils new life into the notebook industry. The possibilities for the future are endless.
In Huawei’s 1+8+N strategy, the smartphone is the “1”, representing the core of all connections. PC is part of the “8”, which are the eight categories of Huawei products including wearables as well as smart displays. The “N” stands for the uncountable connected smart devices that form the IoT. The smartphone is seamlessly connected to the products under the eight categories. The connection is then extended to cover the innumerable IoT devices to support an all-scenario connected experience.
A breed of notebooks: HUAWEI MateBook D Series
The newest HUAWEI MateBook D Series comes with a range of new experiences that showcase Huawei’s commitment to innovation. For example, the recessed camera lets Huawei further cut down on the bezel size and provides better privacy. The HUAWEI MateBook D 14 and HUAWEI MateBook D 15 have three ultra-slim bezels to get highly screen-to-body ratio respectively to provide a wide viewing area in a compact form factor.
Another example is the support for fingerprint login. The fingerprint power button is also inspired by smartphone design. It not only makes unlocking more convenient, but also makes the overall design cleaner. HUAWEI MateBook D also features the HUAWEI Shark Fin Fan 2.0. The newest iteration of the fan packs more fan blades – which are also thinner – delivering even greater cooling performance and higher air output.
The innovations that Huawei brings to the table has already had a revitalising effect on the whole notebook market. What Huawei Share does is beyond what a feature typically provides – it’s a full experience that redefines the relationships between devices and users. From what we can see on the HUAWEI MateBook D, we are optimistic that Huawei will continue to leverage its manufacturing capabilities to create more innovative technologies, and lead the industry forward for the benefit of consumers worldwide.
The Huawei Matebook D15 is available for GHS 4,499 and GHS 6,199 for the Huawei Matebook D 14 whilst the Huawei Matebook Xpro is available for GHS 13,599 at the Huawei Experience store Accra Mall and Accredited retail stores, Visit https://consumer.huawei.com/gh/laptops/ to learn more about the Huawei Matebook series