Samsung unveiled a slew of new devices on Wednesday at its Unpacked event in Paris, France. Not only did the company show off its latest foldable smartphones, the Android-powered Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 (GOOG, GOOGL), and its next-gen smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, but it also debuted its highly anticipated Galaxy Ring.
But the star of the show was the company’s Galaxy AI platform. A suite of software products that the company initially launched with its Galaxy S24 smartphone lineup earlier this year, Galaxy AI includes a number of generative AI capabilities that touch everything from Samsung’s health and fitness apps to its photo, productivity, and web browser offerings.
The strategy is clear: Samsung is counting on its AI efforts, which include some of Google’s AI wizardry, to drive device sales going forward. But the company’s longtime foe Apple (AAPL) is just months away from launching its own AI software that could tip the scales in the iPhone’s favor.
The era of AI
Samsung’s latest devices are certainly impressive. I’m a fan of its two foldables, and its smartwatches are among the most capable on the market. The addition of its Galaxy Ring could give Samsung a nice foothold in a still relatively small market. But the company is clearly working to ensure its AI capabilities are at the forefront of each of its new products.
Samsung has demonstrated how Galaxy AI integrates into the Galaxy Ring, Watch 7, and Watch Ultra with the addition of the company’s new Energy Score feature. The company says the software uses Galaxy AI to help calculate how you slept, how much exercise you’ve done recently, and more to provide you with a digital representation of your overall fitness level that you can use to better understand why you might be more tired or more energetic on certain days.
The app also showed off its Conversation Mode feature, which lets you have a conversation with someone speaking another language by turning the Fold and Flip’s covers and main screens into digital whiteboards that display what you and the person you’re chatting with are saying in your own languages. The app also reads the translated text out loud.
Samsung has also integrated generative AI features into its Photos app, letting you do things like draw sunglasses on a person in an image and automatically generate and place realistic-looking glasses on the subject’s face. Samsung is also tapping into some of Google’s AI capabilities, adding the company’s Gemini software and assistant to its devices.
An incentive to stay and modernize
Like Apple, which launched its Apple Intelligence generative AI initiative at its WWDC event in June, Samsung is using AI as a way to differentiate its latest hardware offerings from its older devices in the hopes that the Galaxy AI and its features will entice customers who have held onto their phones for two years or more to invest in newer, more expensive options.
Unlike Apple, which is only making its AI options available on its iPhone 15 Pro and future phones, Samsung is rolling out its Galaxy AI software to a handful of earlier-generation products, including the S22 series and Z Fold and Flip 4 starting in 2022 and the S23 series and Z Fold and Z Flip 5 starting in 2023.
Consumers keep their smartphones for two to three years, which makes sense. It gives users a taste of Galaxy’s AI at a time when they’re about to upgrade, giving them an incentive to stay loyal to Samsung and continue to enjoy its generative AI features.
The Korean tech giant says its customers are already using its AI software at a healthy rate, with the company reporting that 77% of S24 owners access AI features every week. And with Samsung discussing the possibility of charging fees for its AI services in the future, its Galaxy AI offerings could not only incentivize customers to stay loyal to the company and upgrade to its latest phones, but also open up a new revenue stream.
Of course, it could also depend on what Apple decides to do with its Apple Intelligence services. If Samsung charges for its AI software and Apple doesn’t, that could be a big incentive for customers to switch to the iPhone.
Regardless, both companies are in a new race to see which one can outdo the other in terms of generative AI know-how. And while Samsung has a considerable lead in bringing its software to market, Apple is just months away from launching its own AI platform. Time will tell whether either AI service is capable enough to generate increased sales or not.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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