2024 is known as the first year of AI terminals, and top brands have already accumulated momentum on the new track. The current AI landscape is undecided, and major terminal manufacturers are each launching their own strategies.
Recently, at the European technology festival Viva Technology, Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., announced for the first time the Honor four layer AI strategic architecture for the global market, and announced that future flagship phones overseas will be equipped with Google Cloud related services.
Without a doubt, AI has become a new highland in the competition of the mobile phone industry chain. Most mobile phone manufacturers have released AI models, including Huawei's Pangu model, Honor's Magic model, Samsung's Gaussian model OPPO's Andean Grand Model According to reports, Apple will collaborate with OpenAI to introduce generative AI into iOS 18, including vivo's Blue Heart model.
Since the implementation of the Big Model, various companies have been building new AI ecosystems. From the latest layout of enterprises, there are two major topics that have received considerable attention. Firstly, how to integrate local and cloud models; The second is how to promote the landing in overseas markets with different AI backgrounds.
Consensus on End Cloud Collaboration
Honor announced that its overseas flagship aircraft will be equipped with Google Cloud, reflecting the general consensus in the industry on end-to-end cloud collaboration.
During the Viva Technology speech, Zhao Ming provided a detailed introduction to the Honor's four layer AI strategic architecture.
Specifically, the first layer of Honor AI's strategic architecture emphasizes cross system and cross device integration, using AI to connect phones, tablets, computers, and watches; The second layer uses AI to reconstruct the operating system of a single terminal, allowing devices to understand users more and more as they use it; The third layer is the application of AI on the end side, such as cutout, photo rendering, document summarization, and other application level AI; The fourth layer is the end-to-end cloud collaboration of AI, which realizes the presentation of network side AI such as AIGC and network big models on mobile phones while ensuring user privacy and security.
Although Honor has not yet disclosed whether it will integrate with Google's big model, it has long been deployed and considered in promoting the implementation of cloud based big model capabilities on the mobile side. At the beginning of this year, Honor launched the "Hundred Model Ecological Plan" at the MagicOS 8.0 launch event, announcing that it would provide an entry point for the Hundred Model, allowing cloud side universal large models and various industry vertical large models to be integrated into Magic OS through shelving. Honor also demonstrated its cooperation with Baidu Qianfan Big Model, Gaode Big Model, and Hanglv Zongheng Qianrang Big Model.
It is worth mentioning that Honor does not simply provide interfaces and computing power for cloud side large models, but rather utilizes personalized understanding of users through end side large models to help users call cloud side and vertical domain large model capabilities in a targeted manner.
"When a large model is deployed on a mobile phone, the model itself has no meaning. The meaning comes from adding training data to the model, and once your data is injected, it becomes your phone." Zhao Ming said in an interview, "In the future, the collaboration between end side AI and network AI (cloud AI) will become a development trend.". For example, in specialized healthcare, it is accomplished through network models. However, the end-to-end model can record the user's health status, such as sleep, exercise, daily heart rate, and so on.
It can be seen that in the face of different needs, mobile phones can call different computing power for support. Several developers told 21st Century Business Herald reporters that installing large models into devices as small as smartphones is itself a great challenge. Moreover, top applications often tend to use their own large models, and it is unrealistic to load all large models locally. In the future, cloud collaboration will be the trend.
Exploration of overseas strategies
On the other hand, mobile phone manufacturers, as global enterprises, are also exploring overseas AI systems.
IDC China and Global Vice President Wang Jiping previously pointed out to 21st Century Business Herald reporters, "At the overall ecological level, domestic manufacturers have gradually been searching for their own future development path in China since last year, establishing their own AI intelligent agents or AI ecosystems. At the core, everyone is building their own developer platform, forming an effective AI ecosystem in the future in China. At the same time, 80% of the Android market in the overall mobile phone market, except for Apple, is made by Chinese manufacturers. In the future, terminal manufacturers also face the problem of going abroad, that is, what methods and ecosystems to use to go abroad. At present, it is preliminary to see more embrace and combine with Google's ecosystem, but there is also more diversity."
So it can be seen that mobile phone manufacturers such as Honor are also strengthening their cooperation with global AI giants. In the current mobile phone market, AI has become a new differentiating variable, and the strength of end-to-end AI has also become an important indicator for manufacturers to compete in technology and high-end.
"In the European market, the concentration of Apple and Samsung is too high. Apple occupies 70% of the high-end smartphone market, and its monopoly position in Europe is getting higher and higher. Honor's goal is not to compete with Chinese low-end smartphone brands for jobs. Honor must compete with Apple and Samsung in the construction of high-end brands. Therefore, in the European market, there are almost no phones below $200."
In 2024, Honor will further accelerate its globalization process and continue to focus on the "second domestic market" in Europe. According to internal sales data of Honor, in the first quarter, with its dual flagship strategy and channel expansion, sales in the European market increased by 155% year-on-year.
Next, AI will also become a new competitive point. Canalys pointed out that, AI portable smartphones are becoming a new engine for the growth of the smartphone industry, and the maturity and application expansion of generative AI are expected to further disrupt the competitive landscape of the smartphone industry. According to Canalys' latest forecast, AI smartphones will account for 9% of annual shipments in 2024 and rapidly penetrate to 54% in 2028. Smartphone manufacturers will take the lead in promoting generative AI services on their flagship smartphones and promoting the implementation of end-to-end models.