Samsung Electronics’ flagship smartphones Galaxy S24 collection are displayed throughout their unveiling ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, January 15, 2024.
Kim Hong-ji | Reuters
BARCELONA – Smartphone makers are speaking an enormous sport about synthetic intelligence this yr.
They usually’re so assured about options they’re cramming into their telephones that they assume it’s going to drive a brand new “supercycle” for the trade.
Samsung, Google, and Chinese language agency Honor are among the many names which are beefing up their newest handsets with AI-powered options for translating and summarizing conversations and taking and modifying images with the facility of generative AI algorithms.
These are algorithms which are baked into the gadgets’ chips themselves, quite than accessed by way of the cloud.
Samsung has gone large on generative AI with its Galaxy S24 Extremely smartphone.
Google, too, has built-in AI straight into its newest Pixel telephones.
Apple, in the meantime, can be reportedly exploring the addition of on-device AI options to the subsequent iPhone, per the Monetary Instances.

That is all coming at a time when Cellular World Congress, the cell know-how trade’s greatest commerce present of the yr, is kicking off.
Main gadget makers like Samsung, Huawei, Honor, and Oppo, plus chip corporations like Qualcomm and MediaTek, are anticipated to speak an enormous sport about how a lot AI is remodeling our private gadgets.
When was the final smartphone supercycle?
Smartphone makers have been dreaming of a “supercycle” of their trade, pushed by AI, after a bruising few years that noticed gadget gross sales gradual aggressively.
In 2023, smartphone gross sales fell to 1.16 billion items, the bottom level for unit shipments in a decade.
The final “supercycle” in smartphones occurred between 2010 and 2015, the place in 5 years the market grew fivefold from roughly 300 million items offered per yr to 1.5 billion items, based on IDC knowledge.
That got here at a time when smartphones have been simply beginning to turn into mainstream because of the emergence of extensively used functions: Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp, Uber, Snapchat, Twitter, and Sweet Crush Saga, to call a number of.
“The expansion occurred not simply because Apple launched the iPhone, or as a result of Google launched Android,” Francisco Jeronimo, vp of information and analytics at analysis agency IDC, advised CNBC.
“What actually made it profitable, that supercycle, was the truth that folks have been in a position to get the web of their pocket,” Jeronimo mentioned, in a cellphone interview with CNBC.

Different issues have been occurring on the time, together with the power to make video calls over the web with 3G, and the transition to 4G which meant quicker speeds.
“We noticed extremely popular working methods not simply the browser, however a world of functions that introduced so many providers and a lot content material by way of the cellphone,” Jeronimo mentioned.
Ben Wooden, chief analyst of CCS Perception, pinpoints the disclosing of the iPhone because the final “seismic disruption” that happened within the trade.
“Every little thing since then has been much less disruptive,” Wooden advised CNBC.
‘AI cellphone period’
Main smartphone gamers are betting {that a} supercycle is about to occur because of AI.
Samsung, which launched the Galaxy S24 Extremely earlier this yr, thinks that there is a sturdy likelihood that AI will drive a brand new daybreak that may breathe contemporary life into the trade.
James Kitto, Samsung’s head of cell expertise division within the U.Ok., advised CNBC the cell trade is at first of a brand new period of hypergrowth pushed by AI.
“There’s each expectation that would be the case. We’re seeing some actually, actually excessive demand,” Kitto advised CNBC from Samsung’s European headquarters in Chertsey, England.
The Galaxy S24 got here with the capability to circle an object in your digicam and pull up Google Search outcomes for it, in addition to dwell translation of cellphone calls to folks talking in overseas languages.
“We’re proper now on the dawning of a wholly new period, an AI cellphone period,” Kitto mentioned.
Brian Rakowski, vp of product administration for Google’s Pixel cellphone unit, mentioned he expects AI to drive renewed curiosity round cell know-how.
Google has been engaged on integrating AI into its gadgets for years, most notably with the addition of Tensor line of smartphone processors.
“We already noticed that AI was going to be the differentiator and the subsequent wave of innovation throughout all know-how however particularly cell,” Rakowski advised CNBC. “It’s so key to the whole lot all our computing lives and computing platform.”

Google lately made it attainable for its Tensor Processing Models, or TPUs, to run its Gemini nano AI system. It is a smaller model of its household of huge language fashions which come underneath the umbrella title Gemini.
Google is anticipating it would launch extra superior variations of Gemini on Android subsequent yr, based on Rakowski.
“We have positioned quite a lot of bets and have actually shut collaboration with the analysis group at [AI lab] DeepMind to verify Pixel is one of the simplest ways to showcase and floor what’s coming down the pipe,” Rakowski mentioned.
“Nobody knew that LLMs can be the factor. However we anticipated breakthroughs within the house,” he added.
Why a supercycle is unlikely
Analysts say a supercycle is unlikely to happen throughout the subsequent few years as there’s not sufficient occurring available in the market when it comes to novel options and innovation that can persuade folks holding their growing old smartphones to improve.
Gross sales are anticipated to see progress this yr, based on IDC, with smartphone shipments anticipated to climb 2.4% this yr to 1.19 billion items in 2024. However that is coming off a low base, and general represents lackluster progress for an trade.
Development is anticipated to stay stagnant from there within the coming years, with IDC forecasting incremental year-over-year will increase of between 2% and three% from 2025 to 2028.
Customers stay cautious concerning the prospect of upgrading their smartphones right this moment as the costs for upgrading are nonetheless elevated.
Plus, a lot of the newest fashions which are popping out are nonetheless solely touting incremental enhancements on what got here earlier than.
“A lot because the potential of AI on smartphones is an thrilling prospect, I do not consider the know-how will contribute to a brand new supercycle for smartphone gross sales,” Wooden advised CNBC by way of e-mail.
“At greatest it would assist maintain gross sales and add a little bit bit of additional curiosity in smartphones at a time when the {hardware} is turning into more and more boring.”
Right now, there’s not sufficient pleasure about smartphones on a broader degree to justify a gross sales growth of the type many corporations are dreaming up.
That can change within the coming years, based on Jeronimo — however solely as soon as synthetic intelligence begins turning into helpful for shoppers.
“If there’s something that might make [a supercycle] occur, it might be AI,” Jeronimo mentioned. “However with AI, there’s this query mark of how a lot the cellphone will turn into clever.”
Smartphones right this moment “aren’t clever,” he added.
“When you see a billboard of the newest Tarantino or ‘Mission Not possible’ film, what do you do? You should open an app, guide tickets in that app, ship texts to your spouse, textual content the place she must go, go into your calendar app, test when is the very best day to go to the film, and so forth.”
Loads of corporations are engaged on tech that may do precisely this.
For instance, Humane has its AI Pin, a compact, square-shaped gadget that customers can communicate with to ask it to do sure duties like setting reminders. It makes use of OpenAI’s massive language fashions to take action.
One other startup, Rabbit, has the same gadget. Geely-owned agency Meizu, in the meantime, lately mentioned it is giving up on making Android smartphones in favor of making an AI-focused {hardware} product.