What does the AI ​​revolution mean for smartphones?

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For over a decade, smartphones have been our default choice for personal communication and portable computing.

But gone are the days of comparing camera features and watching how devices get thinner and lighter with each passing year: now, they're all pretty much the same.

I sat down with Samsung president and head of mobile experience T.M. Roh and a small group of media members who were invited to Paris as guests of Samsung to talk about the foldable smartphone and artificial intelligence The revolution we are going through.
Samsung
Both the Fold6 and Flip6 foldable devices feature AI-enabled writing, and the Flip also offers AI-suggested replies to text messages when the device is folded and the front screen is in use.
(Provided)

Given my personal view that the current smartphone market has essentially peaked, I asked Roh how consumers will differentiate between devices in the future as the market becomes saturated, and whether their decisions will be based more on software and AI than on physical hardware attributes.

“If you just think about typical user scenarios and the traditional smartphone experience, our current hardware is more than capable of satisfying those scenarios,” he said.

“In that respect, hardware capabilities may have peaked, but at the same time, in this new era of mobile AI, mobile AI requires new hardware requirements, new capabilities, new phone elements, and it opens up new possibilities to make mobile AI better suited for new requirements and hardware.”

Essentially, rather than hearing about a massive increase in megapixel counts on new smartphones, you'll likely hear about hardware advancements that will help with AI in future smartphones.

“Mobile AI will also give rise to new applications and new user scenarios, and in parallel, hardware will develop and advance further, and as a precursor to these, new developments, new hardware requirements may also emerge.”

The term “Mobile AI” seems to be one that Samsung is eager to embrace.

Samsung President and Head of Mobile Experience TM Lo and Trevor Long. (Provided)

Even within Samsung, the company is moving away from traditional ways of looking at business.

“Last year, we said internally to our entire MX (mobile experience) business that we were no longer in the smartphone business,” Lo said.

“We are in the AI ​​phone business, so we are going to be fully committed to AI and its implementation.”

Samsung made the much-talked-about launch of its artificial intelligence feature, Galaxy AI, with the Galaxy S24 series in January and has already rolled it out to other models, including the S23.

But the company has lofty goals for the number of Galaxy AI-enabled devices.

“This philosophy has enabled us to promise that Galaxy AI will not only be available on the S24, but also on other S series phones launching from 2022 onwards, as well as other Z series foldables, which will be updated to have access to Galaxy AI features,” Lo said.

“In doing so, we will enable 200 million devices with Galaxy AI capabilities, which will democratize the technology.”

Mindful of the short six-month duration of Galaxy AI use to date, and concerns some have about what AI is happening on-device and what commands are being sent to the cloud for AI processing, Lo said: “Circle search is the most frequently used AI feature, but it's search. So if you exclude that and look at all other AI features, the numbers are 55 percent on-device AI and 45 percent cloud-based AI. That's the consumer pattern.”

Thinking about the potential goal of having 100% AI on the device, Lo was much more modest, explaining that it depends on what features users want.

“All use cases that are privacy-sensitive, latency-sensitive and require faster responsiveness will be handled on-device,” he said.

“AI use cases that require strong performance or higher performance or execution will be performed by cloud-based AI, but at the same time, there may be some things in cloud-based AI that can be implemented with on-device AI. On-device AI will be transformed into on-device AI, and cloud-based AI will also move into new areas and explore new possibilities in the future.”

“I think in two to five years, the ratio will be 50/50. The question of 100% on-device AI only is up to the consumer. Even if a consumer doesn't use any cloud-based AI today due to privacy concerns, they may already be 100% on-device AI, so we're giving consumers a choice,” he speculated.

Samsung's lineup of foldable smartphones was updated this week, with the new Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 now equipped with Galaxy AI features.

Samsung
The Galaxy Ring was the highlight for Samsung at an event that was primarily dedicated to the company's range of foldable smartphones. (Provided)

When asked if there could be more affordable foldable smartphones on the way, as these devices are priced at $1,799 and $2,749 respectively, Lo didn't rule it out, saying, “At Samsung Mobile, we are focused on providing a more premium experience to foldable smartphone users, and secondly, we are conducting research and development with partner companies to explore the possibility of more affordable foldable smartphones.”

“As these efforts bear fruit, we will be able to share more information and bring more affordable foldable devices to market.”

And if Apple's reluctance to develop foldable devices might leave some wondering whether it was even worth creating this market segment in the first place, Roh made that point very clearly.

“When we launched our first foldable smartphone in 2019, some expressed concern that it would be a niche product and would never become mainstream, but looking at the current situation and the growth of foldable smartphones, we can confidently say that we were on the right track.”

I asked the head of Samsung's mobile division directly: Do you think Apple will release a foldable phone?

His response was inevitable: “I can't speak for other companies, but our main strength is listening to the consumer and the wants and needs of the market.”

“Therefore, we will continue to develop our technology and also engage in open collaboration based on our philosophy of openness.”

“Our goal is always to provide the best experience and ease of use to consumers before anyone else in the market, and to democratize technologies so that as many people as possible have access to them.”

It seems pretty clear: foldable phones are here to stay and the new smartphone benchmark will be the new battleground: AI.

Trevor Long visited Paris as a guest of Samsung Australia.



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