Samsung's Galaxy AI updates are coming to more of its phones
On Thursday, Samsung will release an upgrade for its free-for-now AI smartphone features, putting the South Korean electronics behemoth one step ahead of Apple in the battle to introduce generative AI to smartphones.
Samung AI vs Apple AI
In January, Samsung debuted Galaxy AI on the Galaxy S24 smartphone. When users make phone calls, the AI software (which makes use of Google's AI chatbot Gemini) provides live translation, allowing them to choose the language they're speaking in and the language they want their voice to be translated into in real time. Additionally, AI photo editing features are available, such as "circle to search," which enables users to swiftly find details about an object in a photo. More Samsung phones, including the S23 series, S23 FE, Z Flip 5, and Z Fold 5, will now have access to the AI capabilities, which are free of charge until 2025.
Google's Pixel 8 Pro, which debuted in December, was the first smartphone to use AI capabilities. However, Apple has not yet released an iPhone with AI capabilities. The digital behemoth is allegedly in discussions with Alphabet, the parent company of Google, about using Gemini for iPhones. It is also thinking about using OpenAI's methodology. In addition, early this year, Apple covertly purchased the Canadian firm DarwinAI in anticipation of the release of iOS 18, which is expected to have generative AI capabilities in September.
Apple is pushing AI at a time when it is lagging behind in the smartphone industry. China's iPhone sales began 2024 down 24% year over year.
When Wamsi Mohan, an analyst with Bank of America, visited China recently to meet with executives from supply chain companies, she noticed the subdued attitude about Apple. In an email to investors on Wednesday, Mohan stated, "This is the first trip over approximately 20 years we have been doing this where smartphones were barely a part of the conversation."
Apple is also dealing with other issues. The Department of Justice is suing the corporation for allegedly breaking antitrust laws, and the European Union is looking into similar allegations of potentially anticompetitive behavior. In addition, the business abandoned its electric car initiative, and its stock underperformed that of other tech behemoths in the Magnificent Seven.
It's reasonable to say that Apple hasn't had the best start to 2024. An effort to develop AI could help it.