As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology becomes increasingly integral to smartphone differentiation, companies like Samsung, Apple, and Google are leading the charge by integrating innovative AI features such as offline call translation, smarter cameras, and AI assistants, setting the stage for a transformative shift in the smartphone market landscape.
During a recent quarterly earnings conference call on May 2, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, hinted at the unveiling of new AI-related features at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
According to Cook, Apple sees generative AI as a significant opportunity and is investing heavily in the technology. Historically, Apple unveils new features at the conference and then implements them in the iPhones released in the latter half of the year. This year, Apple aims to equip the iPhone 16 series with generative AI, which is a significant improvement for the company, as it has been regarded as lagging in the AI space.
Smartphone companies are currently in a race to develop the most advanced AI features for their devices as the release of the first ‘AI iPhone’ approaches in the latter half of the year.
In the past, smartphone companies focused mainly on design and camera performance to differentiate their products, but with the increasing importance of AI capabilities, the future of the smartphone market is expected to shift to AI-based features.
Smartphone companies are now anticipated to introduce new and innovative features using AI technology, such as offline call translation, document summarization, video and audio editing, smarter cameras, and AI assistants.
Samsung Electronics has taken an early lead in the ‘AI smartphone’ market competition. In Jan. 2024, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S24 series, equipped with on-device AI technology, which officially kicked off the ‘AI smartphone’ competition
The Galaxy S24 series is estimated to have sold 13.5 million units in the first quarter, which is the highest sales for the Galaxy series in the 2020s.
Samsung Electronics is also expected to equip the upcoming ‘Galaxy Z6 series’, which is set to be unveiled in July, with AI features designed for foldable phones. Although AI features have already been applied through updates to the already-released ‘Z Fold 5′, the ‘Z6′ will be the first foldable phone to be equipped with AI features from the start.
Apple is expected to apply AI capabilities to its built-in apps, such as the AI assistant ‘Siri’ and the web browser ‘Safari’. Many expect that Apple’s new AI phone will have features that will automatically summarize texts, emails, and web pages and generate responses based on them.
Additionally, a ‘web eraser’ feature is planned, which will allow users to hide specific parts of a web page they don’t want to see. The Verge, an American technology news website, speculates that functions like image creation and editing could also be expected.
Google is also planning to continuously upgrade on-device AI features in its ‘Pixel series’.
The Pixel 8a, which will be announced at the I/O developers conference on May 14, is rumored to have an exciting new feature called the ‘audio magic eraser’. This feature can remove any background noise from videos, such as car engines and wind, automatically.
Additionally, the phone will have an upgraded ‘best take’ feature which will allow users to take several similar photos and create the best single shot. On the other hand, Pixel 9 is set to be released in October and is expected to have a unique feature that can convert text to images.
Chinese smartphone manufacturers are also rapidly introducing AI features. HONOR revealed the ‘Honor Magic 6 Pro’ in February with on-device AI capabilities, allowing users to drag photos from Instagram and search for similar products online.
It also unveiled a feature that analyzes hotel reservation information and automatically opens a map app. Xiaomi has also showcased AI features like meeting note-taking and photo descriptions.
