Huawei has unveiled the HUAWEI XMAGE Trend Report 2023 during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This is the first trend report since the launch of HUAWEI XMAGE in 2022, a new mobile imagery brand which clearly defined the structure of Huawei’s Mobile Imagery Strategy: technology innovation, consumer experience and culture exploration.
Images have become the common language of today, and mobile phones plays an increasingly important role in this new trend, said Li Changzhu, Vice President of Strategy Marketing, Huawei Consumer BG, as well as judge of HUAWEI NEXT IMAGE Awards. Li announced the launch of the report at the HUAWEI XMAGE Salon themed Insight in Mobile Imagery. Based on works generated from submissions to the annual awards, derived from XMAGE, the report identifies trends in the type of visual content that Huawei smartphone users generate.
“HUAWEI XMAGE aims to bring a new era of mobile imagery, and we spare no efforts in forging a strong imagery culture via innovation, which brings users superior experience,” said Li. According to research, over 1.4 trillion photos are taken globally each year, among which more than 89% are captured on mobile phones.
At the event, senior leaders from the field of culture and arts, top photographers, visual sociologists and student representatives shared their views on innovation and culture, key findings in the report, and the future of mobile imagery.
“Technologies and arts, including architecture, can work together to create amazing results. The Huawei report illustrates this powerfully,” said Benedetta Tagliabue, Founder and CEO of EMBT Architects. “I am pleased to see that Huawei is leading such efforts in inspiring users worldwide and exploring the future direction for mobile imagery.”
Chandran Nair, Founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, said at his keynote speech, “Innovative mobile smartphone photography is changing imagery paradigms and helping people redefine the way they communicate what they see. However, the impact of the technology is not simply a better image; it needs to be something that pushes us as individuals to always create something meaningful and impactful.”
More than ever, imagery today is something to be shared, with experiences increasingly shaped by the smartphone.
“The images show that these camera phones are powerful, turning everyone into not just a consumer of images but a creator,” Nichole Fernandez, a visual sociologist and one of the main authors of the report, said of the Huawei phones used to create the submitted photographs and videos. “Even the untrained person can become a photographer, capturing moments they find meaningful and creating something they are proud enough of to submit to a contest. It is democratizing image production.”
Since 2017, the annual HUAWEI NEXT IMAGE Awards have supported photographic creativity across the globe, with almost 4 million entries from more than 170 countries over the past six years.
This year, Huawei collaborated with FactStory, to assemble a team of expert visual analysts who studied the submitted photographs and videos before sharing their insights on how Huawei devices are being used, with special emphasis on sociology, psychology and the emotions evoked by the curated images.
