The mobile phone industry seems to be entering a new iPhone moment. More and more large players in the sector are incorporating artificial intelligence into their devices to add new capabilities. Could this be a revolution on par with Apple’s flagship, or is it just a passing trend? Brands clearly lean toward the former and are using the Mobile World Congress to showcase a trend that could shape the future.
The most evident case is Samsung. In mid-January, the South Korean giant unveiled the Galaxy S24, its latest-generation smartphone and the first to feature Gemini, Google’s powerful AI model. The collaboration brings practical features like real-time translation and transcription, but also improvements to its search engine. If a person sees something of interest in an image on Instagram or in a YouTube video and wants more information, they just have to circle it with a finger and related results will appear. Integrating generative AI at the core of mobile devices will be totally disruptive, explains David Alonso Nieto, head of Mobile Business Iberia at Samsung, to El Periódico de Catalunya. Passer from the smartphone to the AIphone is a likely path.
Other companies are also betting on AI. Xiaomi, the Chinese giant, showcased its newest phone at MWC 2024, the Xiaomi 14 and 14 Ultra. This model, the most powerful in its line, uses this technology to include new and surprising functions. Its AI Portrait feature lets users create a portrait with any background imagined. Uploading 15 photos and asking to be in Paris will generate a new image beside the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame. With another app, a conceptual drawing of a flower can be transformed into a realistic, more elaborate image. The company aims for the AI in its phone to be interconnected in a 360-degree ecosystem that also includes a self-driving car and household appliances, explains Nelly de Navia, Xiaomi Iberia’s head of marketing.
Format innovations
The future phones may look radically different from today. Some imagine devices without a physical screen that occupies a hand’s space. Humane, a US-based company, surprised the world late last year with the AI Pin. This small gadget clips to clothing and is voice-controlled, able to send a text, call a contact, take a photo, translate speech into various languages, or provide information on a topic. The device features a laser that can project results onto the user’s hand.
Other companies pursue innovation in other formats. Motorola is also presenting a phone with a screen so flexible it can be folded in half and worn as a bracelet, as if it were a simple accessory rather than a device packed with integrated circuitry. Brands like Lenovo and Samsung are exploring similar concepts first shown at last year’s MWC and that were interactive again at this edition.
For now, and despite companies marketing them as inventions that will retire the traditional mobile, these alternate models remain far from mainstream adoption. Yet they may mark the first phase of an evolution that could redefine the mobile industry in the coming decade.