There is still room for many improvements and innovations in the smartphone market, notably on batteries, computing power and artificial intelligence. This is the vision defended by the 3rd world manufacturer, Huawei.
Improvements can still be made to smartphones and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a vital role in enabling further innovations in the sector.
The differences are significant in terms of functions offered between a $ 200 and a $ 1,000 smartphone, insists Bruce Lee, Huawei's global vice president of mobile phones. He rejects analyzes suggesting that innovation in the smartphone market would have reached a ceiling, minimizing discrepancies between low and high end terminals, or ultimately suggesting that manufacturers should turn to other sectors.
Questioned by ZDNet , Lee said that Huawei continued to focus its R & D efforts on introducing additional features and upgrading existing capabilities such as camera, battery life and computing speed. It is also necessary to ensure that terminals can support a faster Internet connection, especially when 5G networks are available, he adds.
Earlier this year, Pacific Crest analyst for emerging technologies, Ben Wilson, published a research report titled, "There is no next smartphone." According to him, the smartphone revolution was a "singular event in the history of the computer platform" which should not be repeated. Others also debated the "death of the smartphone" and the impact of wearables.
While recognizing the enormous growth potential of smart wearable and terminals, Lee believes that these products still face the same problems encountered in the smartphone market. It highlights the current limitations in terms of computing performance and autonomy.
For the leader of Huawei, the smartphone is far from being in agony. Multiple ways of innovation and development remain in smartphones. For Lee, the industry must continue to invest in these key areas - enhanced autonomy and computing power - to improve the user experience.
In this sense, the Huawei framework considers that AI will play an important role in the future of terminals and will facilitate many critical developments in smartphones.
Huawei bets on a future based on AI
In its annual report of 2016 , the Chinese manufacturer describes an era of "Intelligence +" in which all devices, people and processes would be assisted by the AI. "Building intelligence in our devices, networks and industries will open new worlds," the manufacturer writes, adding that this would affect the role of smartphones in the future.
Huawei predicts that phones will be able to think contextually and engage in dialogue with humans to understand their needs. The devices will then provide the information and services needed by humans and will evolve towards personal assistants in order to bring personalized expertise and services.
"The AI will revolutionize the user experience, but before it can do so, we will need a quantum leap in the operation of our smart devices, chipsets and cloud services," Huawei said.
"Artificial intelligence will impose many demands on computer performance, energy efficiency and synergy between the terminal and the cloud. Meeting these requirements and creating a better intelligent experience will require a synthesis of the capabilities of both the chips And the cloud. "
Lee reports that Huawei has invested heavily in building an AI-focused development team, including both hardware and software.
"We hope to use AI in our phones to benefit from more learning abilities ... [and], thanks to the big data, we will be able to understand the consumption habits and better incorporate the functions based on the voice and the" Image in the phone "details the leader. "This will allow the phone to become smarter and bring more efficiency to consumers."
Lee also insists on the need to integrate this intelligence on the device itself, rather than transmitting the data to be analyzed on the cloud.
Since machine learning and AI algorithms require a significant amount of computing power, many of these processes are carried out on the cloud, not locally on the terminal, he recalls. This approach, however, was not effective, he said, thus defending the need to support more AI features on the smartphone itself in order to reduce latency.
"We can then get faster responses because we do not need to download data from the device into the cloud, do the processing and send them back to the device," suggests Lee. "And when we do the calculations on the local device, we can also protect the privacy of users since we do not need to download data to the server."
Growth Beyond China
In terms of performance in the smartphone market, Huawei had a remarkable start to the year, outpacing Oppo in the first quarter, taking pole position in China in the sector. It delivered 20.8 million units, an increase of 25.5% over the previous year, climbing to 20% market share.
Globally, it ranks third behind Samsung and Apple, with a market share of 11.3% in the second quarter of 2017. The Chinese supplier delivered 38.5 million units, compared with 79.8 million for Samsung and 41 million for Apple.
Lee attributes growth to its high-end P and Mate product lines. It also reveals that the company's future growth strategy would be based on additional investments in high-end smartphones.
In addition, Huawei will seek to increase its market share outside its domestic market. Noting that China has contributed about 60% of its mobile telephony business, Lee says the supplier is targeting revenues generated mainly internationally.
While Europe is currently the second largest size market after China, Huawei adds that the rest of Asia Pacific will play a central role in its future growth because of the geographical advantage the manufacturer enjoys in this region. Due to its legacy, it also better understood Asian consumers. This market should therefore offer a higher growth potential, he considers.
Improvements can still be made to smartphones and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a vital role in enabling further innovations in the sector.
The differences are significant in terms of functions offered between a $ 200 and a $ 1,000 smartphone, insists Bruce Lee, Huawei's global vice president of mobile phones. He rejects analyzes suggesting that innovation in the smartphone market would have reached a ceiling, minimizing discrepancies between low and high end terminals, or ultimately suggesting that manufacturers should turn to other sectors.
Questioned by ZDNet , Lee said that Huawei continued to focus its R & D efforts on introducing additional features and upgrading existing capabilities such as camera, battery life and computing speed. It is also necessary to ensure that terminals can support a faster Internet connection, especially when 5G networks are available, he adds.
Earlier this year, Pacific Crest analyst for emerging technologies, Ben Wilson, published a research report titled, "There is no next smartphone." According to him, the smartphone revolution was a "singular event in the history of the computer platform" which should not be repeated. Others also debated the "death of the smartphone" and the impact of wearables.
While recognizing the enormous growth potential of smart wearable and terminals, Lee believes that these products still face the same problems encountered in the smartphone market. It highlights the current limitations in terms of computing performance and autonomy.
For the leader of Huawei, the smartphone is far from being in agony. Multiple ways of innovation and development remain in smartphones. For Lee, the industry must continue to invest in these key areas - enhanced autonomy and computing power - to improve the user experience.
In this sense, the Huawei framework considers that AI will play an important role in the future of terminals and will facilitate many critical developments in smartphones.
Huawei bets on a future based on AI
In its annual report of 2016 , the Chinese manufacturer describes an era of "Intelligence +" in which all devices, people and processes would be assisted by the AI. "Building intelligence in our devices, networks and industries will open new worlds," the manufacturer writes, adding that this would affect the role of smartphones in the future.
Huawei predicts that phones will be able to think contextually and engage in dialogue with humans to understand their needs. The devices will then provide the information and services needed by humans and will evolve towards personal assistants in order to bring personalized expertise and services.
"The AI will revolutionize the user experience, but before it can do so, we will need a quantum leap in the operation of our smart devices, chipsets and cloud services," Huawei said.
"Artificial intelligence will impose many demands on computer performance, energy efficiency and synergy between the terminal and the cloud. Meeting these requirements and creating a better intelligent experience will require a synthesis of the capabilities of both the chips And the cloud. "
Lee reports that Huawei has invested heavily in building an AI-focused development team, including both hardware and software.
"We hope to use AI in our phones to benefit from more learning abilities ... [and], thanks to the big data, we will be able to understand the consumption habits and better incorporate the functions based on the voice and the" Image in the phone "details the leader. "This will allow the phone to become smarter and bring more efficiency to consumers."
Lee also insists on the need to integrate this intelligence on the device itself, rather than transmitting the data to be analyzed on the cloud.
Since machine learning and AI algorithms require a significant amount of computing power, many of these processes are carried out on the cloud, not locally on the terminal, he recalls. This approach, however, was not effective, he said, thus defending the need to support more AI features on the smartphone itself in order to reduce latency.
"We can then get faster responses because we do not need to download data from the device into the cloud, do the processing and send them back to the device," suggests Lee. "And when we do the calculations on the local device, we can also protect the privacy of users since we do not need to download data to the server."
Growth Beyond China
In terms of performance in the smartphone market, Huawei had a remarkable start to the year, outpacing Oppo in the first quarter, taking pole position in China in the sector. It delivered 20.8 million units, an increase of 25.5% over the previous year, climbing to 20% market share.
Globally, it ranks third behind Samsung and Apple, with a market share of 11.3% in the second quarter of 2017. The Chinese supplier delivered 38.5 million units, compared with 79.8 million for Samsung and 41 million for Apple.
Lee attributes growth to its high-end P and Mate product lines. It also reveals that the company's future growth strategy would be based on additional investments in high-end smartphones.
In addition, Huawei will seek to increase its market share outside its domestic market. Noting that China has contributed about 60% of its mobile telephony business, Lee says the supplier is targeting revenues generated mainly internationally.
While Europe is currently the second largest size market after China, Huawei adds that the rest of Asia Pacific will play a central role in its future growth because of the geographical advantage the manufacturer enjoys in this region. Due to its legacy, it also better understood Asian consumers. This market should therefore offer a higher growth potential, he considers.