BeijingShanghai-based Xiaomi – the world’s third largest company smartphone The Chinese smartphone vendor, which is expected to launch in the June quarter, according to research firm IDC, is expected to unveil the Mix Flip, its first-ever clamshell-style model, and the Mix Fold 4, with a slim booklet design that opens horizontally into a tablet form, according to teasers released by the company.
These initiatives reflect the way in which large Android Mobile phone market players are banking on foldable, AI-powered models to compete Apple‘s iPhone in the premium segment of the world’s largest smartphone market. Foldable phones with AI features are expected to drive smartphone sales on the continent, with total shipments in 2024 rising 3.1% year-on-year to 279 million units, according to IDC.
IDC data showed that total foldable smartphone shipments in China in 2023 jumped 114.5% year-on-year to 7 million units.
Huawei beat Samsung in first quarter become the world’s best-selling foldable smartphone brand with a market share of 35 percent, like the South Korean The tech conglomerate’s market share fell to 23%, according to data from Counterpoint Research. However, Samsung remained the world’s top smartphone vendor in the second quarter with shipments of 53.9 million units, according to IDC.
Samsung’s foldable phones powered by ByteDance AI are set to start shipping this Saturday, potentially boosting demand for its devices on the continent, where it was once the largest smartphone vendor. with a market share of 20 percent in 2013.
The partnership with Samsung builds on “high-quality content from [ByteDance’s] Douyin group to provide users with the most up-to-date and reliable information online,” according to a social media post by Volcanic EngineByteDance’s cloud computing unit. Douyin, which has more than 600 million daily active users, is the Chinese version of the global short-video platform Tick Tock.
The Doubao AI model allows users of the new Samsung phones to generate avatars in four different styles from a single photo of a person. The LLM also supports the Bixby voice assistant, Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Siri, to generate videos of a location when a user searches for travel information.
Samsung, which has Google Gemini as an overseas AI partner, has localized its GenAI efforts in China amid the country’s strict censorship policies. Samsung has also partnered with Baidu and photo editing platform Meitu to support its Galaxy devices on the continent.
“The integration of generative AI and the multi-window display power of foldable products can enable greater productivity and become a key factor for the rapid growth of this sector. [smartphone] “segment,” Counterpoint said in a recent report.
Xiaomi’s Mix Flip, meanwhile, has Qualcommthe next-generation Snapdragon 8 as the processor and the Summilux from German company Leica Camera for its optical lens.