Artificial intelligence has become a focus of Samsung Electronics this year, as the company hopes to boost sales of its high-end smartphones as consumers extend their upgrade cycle and keep spending cautious.
The world's largest smartphone maker is betting big on artificial intelligence. In January of this year, Samsung Electronics launched the Galaxy S24 series smartphones and marketed them around their Galaxy AI. According to reports, the Galaxy S24 series will organically incorporate generative AI features into the system, providing functions such as instant circle search, note assistant and transcription assistant, real-time translation, generative editing, etc.
The Galaxy S24 series' innovation and breakthroughs in generative AI applications have earned it excellent market performance. Previously, statistics from Counterpoint Research, a market research firm, showed that smartphones equipped with generative AI functions had far outperformed traditional phones in the first quarter of this year, with rapidly rising sales. Among the generative AI smartphones that have already been released, the Samsung Galaxy S24 series ranks in the top three in terms of sales, leading the market with a 58% market share.
Artificial intelligence has become a focus of Samsung Electronics this year, as the company hopes to boost sales of its high-end smartphones as consumers extend their upgrade cycle and keep spending cautious. TM Roh, head of Samsung Electronics' mobile business, said: "We are strengthening and introducing more artificial intelligence functions into our products. As consumers use more artificial intelligence functions, they may truly feel the convenience and benefits brought by AI." "I am convinced that these Galaxy AI, mobile AI are powerful drivers to attract consumers to buy new products."
Samsung Electronics hopes to resist the artificial intelligence offensive from competitors such as Apple(AAPL.US). Apple launched Apple Intelligence in June of this year, but this set of AI functions will only be supported by iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and cannot be used in many regions. Many analysts have pointed out that early AI functions alone cannot drive sales of new phones.
Revenue from Samsung Electronics' mobile business usually comes from sales of various smartphones and other devices. This is in stark contrast to Apple, which, in addition to generating revenue from hardware sales, also contributes a lot of revenue from software and services.
However, as Samsung Electronics begins to inject artificial intelligence into its own applications, the company seems to be increasing its investment in software, including the upgraded artificial intelligence assistant Bixby, which will be launched later this year.
TM Roh said: "Users usually access different software through the mobile app store. As smartphones become more intuitive, artificial intelligence on devices may not always be so. This may provide a more prominent opportunity for Samsung Electronics' applications." He added that the company is strengthening its own applications, "We will advance and provide improved software and native applications for consumers."
Regarding the question of whether Samsung Electronics will launch an artificial intelligence service subscription service, TM Roh said: "We are listening to the opinions of the market, consumers, and different experts." "Subscription services can be a choice, which may mean that AI functions can be used as core technology to attract more consumers to buy hardware. But whatever the future holds, we will make wise decisions for the sake of consumers and Samsung Electronics' mobile business."
In addition, TM Roh hinted that as Samsung Electronics seeks to expand its product ecosystem, there may be other hardware products entering the market in the future. When asked whether Samsung Electronics will introduce foldable screens into other devices such as tablets, TM Roh said, "When hardware integrity, software integrity, content integrity and the ecosystem are fully mature, we will launch a highly satisfactory and almost perfect new foldable form in a new product category." However, he did not specify what the new product category with foldable screens would be.
It is reported that Samsung Electronics is also developing a mixed reality headset. Samsung Electronics, Google and Qualcomm reached a cooperation agreement last year to jointly develop a mixed reality headset, but since then, there have been no updates on the device. With the release of Apple Vision Pro, mixed reality headsets have become the focus of people's attention. TM Roh admitted that mixed reality devices are "one of the important devices that lead new mobile experiences and new ecosystems." He remained tight-lipped about Samsung Electronics' mixed reality devices, but said that the company will launch a new "mixed reality platform" later this year.