NoChina’s Tech Giants Unveil AI-Powered Smartphones to Challenge Global Market Leaders

No
China’s Tech Leverage Unveils AI-Fueled Smartphones to Combat Global Market Share Leaders
China is leading the charge in reshaping the smartphone world with its revolutionary AI-enabled smartphones and innovations. China’s AI-enabled smartphone market has recorded staggering growth with a 591% quarter-over-quarter growth rate in the third quarter of 2024. This surge stems from innovations in AI model optimization, open ecosystems, and local vendors’ innovations in privacy frameworks.
Chinese companies have made giant leaps in AI model optimizations, maintaining computational costs under control and providing for quicker inference. Xiaomi’s MiLM2, for instance, reduced parameters from 6 billion to 4 billion, with HONONOR and vivo reducing their models from 7 billion to 3 billion parameters. These optimizations made AI features more acceptable and accessible across all price segments, the impact of which was AI democratization.
The smartphone adoption of AI is evolving in three phases: AI-as-a-Feature, AI-as-a-Service, and AI-as-an-Interface. The best Chinese manufacturers are currently invested in AI-as-a-Feature, integrating isolated AI features like “AI Eraser” and “AI Summary” into pre-installed apps. But the real game-changer is the second phase, AI-as-a-Service, which will introduce more sophisticated AI capability.
Globally, AI smartphone shipments will increase 73.1% in 2025, driven by the use of generative AI features. In 2028, global shipments of generative AI smartphones will total 912 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of 78.4%. The growth presents immense opportunities for vendors and application developers as well.
Chinese companies showcased state-of-the-art AI-powered products at the 2025 Mobile World Congress, highlighting their leadership in the “AI+” age. Huawei and ZTE showcased packaged “5G-A+AI” offerings, employing massive AI models on complex problems. Honor announced its transformation into an “AI-driven smart device ecosystem company,” unveiling the “Honor Alpha Plan” to deliver human-oriented AI on phones. Tecno unveiled its Next-Gen AI Ecosystem, with AI-powered devices across various segments.
Chinese phone brands are also collaborating with Google to enhance their AI prowess, leveraging Google’s full-stack capabilities to compete globally. Differentiation is still an issue, however, since most brands are applying similar AI features developed with Google’s Gemini model.
Honor is committing $10 billion in investment over the next five years toward AI research on its devices. The investment is to reaffirm China’s focus on advancing the horizon of AI technologies and reshaping the market of intelligent devices. The times of the AI revolution are to fundamentally reshape productivity, society, and culture, kicking off intelligent connectivity and intelligent applications.