MANILA, Philippines – Samsung’s AI bet is paying off, with a report from research firm IDC showing the South Korean tech giant capturing the top position in Q2 2024 with an 18.9% share of shipments, “thanks to a strategic focus on its flagships and a strong AI strategy.” 

The company launched its S24 flagship line in January, bannered by Galaxy AI, a suite of AI-enabled features such as translation, transcription, image editing, and a screen-based search function called Circle-to-Search, which another research firm Kantar says, drove sales for the unit.

Around that time, official Samsung statements mentioned expectations of seeing Galaxy AI in 100 million devices within 2024. Since then, that number has doubled to 200 million, in pronouncements made during the company’s Unpacked launch event for its Fold6 and Flip6 foldables in Paris in July, further signaling the company’s optimism for its AI-equipped devices. 

At the launch of the S24, Samsung made the AI features also available on previous generation devices such as the S23, and at the time, its current generation foldable Fold5 and Flip5 devices. By May, the company also added it to more older generation devices up to 2021’s S21, Flip3, and Fold3. 

While the strategy certainly increased the number of Galaxy devices that can say they are equipped with the suite of technologies, the number of implemented features may vary. For example, the 2021 devices only saw Circle-to-Search and Chat Assist trickle down. Circle-to-Search is a valuable addition for the older phones however, as Samsung revealed that it’s been the most used AI feature.

Photo assist, which lets people erase elements out of pictures, and live translate, are the next two most popular AI features, according to Samsung’s Jisun Park, executive vice president and smartphone software project leader in a roundtable interview with media in Paris after Unpacked.

Will Galaxy AI come to its more affordable phones?

The company had talked about “democratization” of access to its AI features, which has come largely by bringing them to their more expensive flagship-level devices, or users of older flagships.

To truly democratize, that might mean expanding the features to cheaper devices eventually. So the question is, will these make their way to its A-line phones? Park said:

“We are kind of investigating and looking into the possibility of expanding features to A series as well. There are many factors that we need to consider – especially for on-device [AI] features, there are hardware constraints, and many other factors. So we are investigating it, and we will figure out what the right set of features that we can deploy to or expand to A series. But nothing has been decided yet.” 

Park’s special mention about “on-device [AI] features” also calls to mind the two types of AI features. The aforementioned “on-device” features use the chip within the phone for processing. This makes it ideal for applications that need to be done without a data connection, or tasks that need privacy since data can be processed within your phone, and doesn’t go to an external server.

The second type is cloud-enabled AI features, which are functions processed on external servers with much more compute power. This is for functions that require a greater amount of computational power than the onboard chip can handle such as image object erasure, and other generative AI (genAI) features, and requires a data connection. 

AI features could also run on a hybrid on-device and cloud setup. 

A-series phones, and older flagship phones run on less powerful hardware than current flagships, so there is an expectation that AI features, especially ones relying on on-device processing, can’t just simply be ported. 

Here’s a technical chart from Samsung showing what features are processed on-device, and what are run via the cloud. 

At the time of a key update rollout that included AI features, Forbes in May asked the company about why phones like this year’s A35 and A55 don’t have AI features. The company answered, “At Samsung, we are prioritizing the best experience for our users and customers. To achieve this, we are ensuring compatibility is at the centee of all future and current updates, and we are managing this across selected devices with the rollout of One UI 6.1.”

Premiumization trend, emerging midrange challengers?

But aside from hardware concerns, market trends could also be a factor as to when A-series phones would become a “Galaxy AI phone.” (To note: most smartphones already use some form of AI and machine learning, especially with computational photography or the use of software for enhancing pictures.)

IDC notes an ongoing “premiumization trend” for consumers, and a polarization where Samsung and Apple dominate the top, while “many leading Chinese OEMs are increasing shipments in the low end” leaving a “challenged” mid-range market. 

If Samsung could afford to keep AI features on its premium phones right now, there currently appears little incentive to democratize towards the midrange.

Samsung may also be especially focused on flagships right now as the competition in the premium market is heating up with Apple having announced its own suite of AI features under “Apple Intelligence.” A new iPhone is expected to be announced in September 2024. 

Rappler also asked what Samsung’s plans are as Apple introduces its AI-enabled products, and if it would ever partner with OpenAI, which has a partnership with Apple. 

For this, Park only mentioned its “principle of open collaboration,” saying the company is open to partnering with OpenAI “if that will help us to provide the user experience that we want to provide” while also highlighting its current partnership with Google. 

Beyond Apple, as other Android phone makers are also expected to come up with phones toting genAI features, Park said that one of its advantages would be that they have “1 billion Galaxy devices” – including laptops, and wearables – on which they can theoretically bring Galaxy AI to.

Phones like OPPO’s Reno12 are already bringing genAI features to the midrange mix. If these features turn out to be much desired among users, then that may just speed up the coming of Galaxy AI to A-series phones.

“We are also trying to make sure the experiences that we are providing it’s competitive enough and to make that happen, we are working very closely with strategy partners, and that’s how we are making our solutions and features more competitive,” Park said. – Rappler.com