Z marks the sweet spot in AI for Samsung

Samsung joined battle on three fronts this week as it waged its war for leadership of multiple categories of the smart device market.

It chose Paris, a city in the throes of preparation for the Olympic Games, as the setting of its most wide-ranging launch of the year on Wednesday night, under the Galaxy Unpacked banner.

The main event was the unveiling of the next generation of its foldable phones, incorporating new AI features into the foldable format. It is in a race against Honor, Huawei and Oppo for leadership in foldables, and against Apple, Huawei and Honor for leadership in smartphone AI. As a result, the launch helped set the agenda for the next phase of the smartphone wars.

However, Samsung also gave notice that it remained a formidable competitor in the smart watch category, that it was keeping up with the earbud discipline, and that it was even able to crack new codes in the smart device Olympics, in the shape of the Galaxy Ring.

The latter is Samsung’s entry into the newest category of wearable devices, the smart ring, led by Finnish health technology company Oura. Samsung hopes to leverage the functionality and market penetration of the existing Samsung Health app, with more than a decade of institutional memory and investment behind it, to take an instant lead in this nascent event.

However, the first generation of the Galaxy Ring will not be released in South Africa for the fosterable future, as Samsung will first test its viability in a few major markets, according to Jusitn Hume, Samsung South Africa vice president of mobile.

The emphasis in this country, he told Business Times, was on the Galaxy AI ecosystem, first unveiled in conjunction with the Galaxy S24 smartphone series in January. As the first dedicated AI platform for smartphones, it spurred Honor, Oppo and Apple into aggressive responses. The iPhone maker last month announced that it would introduce its own version of AI – standing for Apple Intelligence – on its new devices.

Here, Samsung has a significant head-start, and the new foldable devices benefit from the learnings from integrating AI into the S24.

“Samsung introduced Galaxy AI with the Galaxy S24 series, marking a new era in mobile AI,” said Hume. “Now, Galaxy AI is available on more devices like Galaxy smartphones and tablets, making powerful AI accessible to everyone. It includes on-device and cloud-based AI, ensuring privacy and offering flexibility.

“Through collaborations with industry leaders like Google, we enhance Galaxy with optimised (Google) Gemini capabilities and unique AI features, enriching the consumer experience. This AI-powered ecosystem promises exciting new possibilities across our range of devices.

“We are creating an unprecedented AI-powered device ecosystem that will bring transformative new possibilities across our portfolio of devices thanks to Galaxy AI.”

While the Galaxy AI features were rolled out to older devices via software updates earlier this year, including last year’s Galaxy Z Fold5 and Z Flip5, the new Galaxy Fold6 and Flip6 were better able to showcase such functionality, said Hume.

“One of the hallmarks of particularly the Galaxy Z Fold is the ability for users to view video content and read, which are much easier in this format,” he said. “Galaxy AI now has a bigger canvas from which to do these things. The AI overlay that we saw with Gemini that is coming in this device means that we’ll be able to search content or read from the screen much more effectively.”

A fundamental difference between this week’s launch and those that went before, said Hume, was that it came at a time when the entire industry was moving to the next generation of foldable phones.

“Great strides have been made by all in the industry as we are seeing reductions in the weight and size of devices – thinner with bigger screens. At Samsung we’ve been increasing the screen size by reducing the bezel around the device.

“Those however, are superficial … we’ve looked at the screen and reduced the number of layers in the screen and introduced more durable screen technologies into the device. We’ve improved the hinge with our dual-rail hinge, which provides shock absorption and protects from everyday bumps and bruises.”

Hume agreed that the devices set a new benchmark and agenda for smartphone evolution – particularly in terms of AI deployment across the devices.

“The clear indication is that simply having (AI) on the device is great but insufficient. Samsung is demonstrating that it has to be across the handset, the wearable, and the hearable product and then integrated back to the applications.

“At Galaxy Unpacked, we significantly called out the Samsung Health App, which has over 65-million active monthly users and growing at a rapid rate. AI now pulls together the readings that are coming from handset, from our sleep-tracking to blood pressure and the like, and give me scores such as my sleep patterns, my energy score, which empowers me to do things that allow me to modify my lifestyle and live well.”

Hume said that, since introducing Galaxy AI in January, “Samsung now has over 420 000 AI-ready devices in the hands of South Africans, switched on and operational”. As a result, expectations were high for the new Galaxy devices, “as they are ready to give the market a clear reason to upgrade to these really powerful handsets”.

According to Counterpoint Research, global foldable smartphone shipments were expected to pass 100-million by 2027. Samsung was fully committed to the category, said Hume, and was preparing for a significant increase in demand this year. It had ramped up manufacturing capabilities accordingly.

“Across the globe, Samsung is continuing to pioneer the category with flagship-level performance and form factors proven to be popular with consumers,” he said. “They deliver the next-level experiences that make users more productive and creative.

“We’ve been improving and refining the foldable experience over six generations of devices, learning from, and implementing the feedback we’ve received from millions of users around the world, making Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 our best foldables yet.”

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on social media on @art2gee. This story first appeared in the Sunday Times.