Huawei announced its latest smartphone model last Friday under its Honor brand. “Honor Magic”, labelled as a concept device, impressed us by its dual edged AMOLED display, dual front camera + dual rear camera design, and its AI related software and services.

Adopting curved display has become the trend among Chinese vendors for flagship models. In addition to Honor Magic, edged display is the key selling point for Xplay6 launched by vivo, Mi Note 2 by Xiaomi, as well as Mate 9 Pro by Huawei. Display technology is clearly the driver behind the innovation in smartphone industry, as we pointed out in our previous report: Global Smartphone Shipments by Display Panel by Vendor Forecast: 2014-2022.

Meanwhile, what we also observed is that the display innovation is taking place only in the hardware level. Lack of the compelling app/user case designed specifically for curved display is the common shortcoming for all the above-mentioned smartphone models. More innovation in the software and service level would strengthen curved-display’s role as a strong purchase driver in mass market.