Currently, a fierce competition is unfolding in the realm of AI technology within the smartphone industry.
In the early hours of September 10, during Apple’s much-anticipated annual event, the company will unveil the new iPhone 16 series. This launch promises a revolutionary change with the introduction of Apple Intelligence, an AI capability that operates across various applications—such as Mail, Maps, Calendar, and local personal data—thanks to its deep integration with the iOS operating system. This approach aims to enhance the user experience on a system level rather than just through individual apps and services.
This year has been a challenging one for Apple in the Chinese market, with declining sales at the beginning of the year prompting both Apple and local distributors to implement price cuts. These aggressive discounts have helped stabilize the company’s market performance in China during the first half of the year. Recently, reports have emerged suggesting that Apple is betting on the immense popularity of its next-generation AI-powered iPhone. The company has requested suppliers to prepare components for approximately 88 million to 90 million devices, surpassing last year’s initial order of around 80 million new iPhones. This increase in inventory for the iPhone 16 series seems to reflect Apple’s strengthened confidence in the new models.
However, Apple’s advancements in AI are soon facing competition from other manufacturers. At the 2024 IFA in Berlin, Honor’s CEO Zhao Ming announced the global release of the industry’s first cross-application open-ecosystem AI Agent, which requires no adaptations to applications and can understand complex user intents, allowing for automated execution across apps after decision-making analysis.
During the event, Zhao demonstrated the capabilities of the Honor AI Agent. For instance, many apps hide the option to cancel subscriptions within multiple levels of their menu, making the process cumbersome for users. With the Honor AI Agent, a user can simply issue a voice command to check for ongoing subscriptions. The agent will then automatically access WeChat and Alipay—popular payment platforms—to verify and display results. The Honor AI Agent is expected to be commercially available on the Magic 7 series.
The complexity of invoking built-in system services and operating different applications like WeChat and Alipay is evident, and merely embedding AI into existing apps is not sufficient. Both Honor and Apple share a similar pathway in integrating AI capabilities into their operating systems; however, they differ fundamentally in their approaches. Apple maintains a closed ecosystem that resists third-party app involvement, whereas Honor opts for an open ecosystem.
“Compared to Apple’s closed system, an open ecosystem in China’s internet and AI service landscape is more conducive to integrating a multitude of internet AI services,” Zhao stated. He expressed optimism about future collaborations with tech giants like Microsoft and Google, along with other internet and AI partners.
Regarding Apple’s AI strategy, Zhao remarked, “Apple’s AI solutions will push the entire industry towards greater clarity. If smartphone manufacturers are simply integrating third-party AI features like translation, they cannot claim to have created an AI phone. A true AI phone should possess human-computer interaction capabilities like those of an AI Agent, which represents the core value of edge AI. Attempting to create an AI phone akin to fast food could lead to setbacks.”
As AI smartphones become more prominent, current edge AI features mainly focus on tasks like object removal, intelligent image segmentation, and content summarization. Consumers are eagerly awaiting a wider array of AI applications that have the potential to enhance daily life.