Samsung is developing mobile phones with enhanced sensors and larger, more portable screens to meet the demands of generative artificial intelligence, according to the head of its mobile phone business. Roh Tae-moon (TM Roh), president of the Mobile Experience (MX) division at Samsung, which includes the company’s mobile phone, wearable, tablet, and laptop businesses, revealed that the majority of Samsung’s mobile phone research and development is now focused on “AI phones.” These devices are expected to differ significantly from Samsung’s current models.
As the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung now identifies itself as an “AI phone” business, Roh explained in an interview.
“When you think about ordinary users of traditional smartphones, our current hardware can satisfy those scenarios quite sufficiently. So maybe hardware performance and hardware features have peaked,” he said. “But at the same time, this new era of mobile AI calls for new hardware requirements, new performance, new form factors, opening up new possibilities, so that mobile AI can be better leveraged with new requirements in hardware.”
“Form factor” refers to the size, shape, and components of a device. Roh shared that last year, he announced internally that the MX business would pivot from a smartphone focus to an AI phone focus, concentrating all efforts on AI implementation.
While Roh did not specify the exact form factors under consideration, he hinted at the possibility of larger screens combined with increased mobility, possibly referencing the rollable and triple-foldable phones Samsung is rumored to be developing.
“In terms of new form factors, maybe we can have even more optimized combinations of portability and large screens,” he said. “Going forward, mobile AI will be increasingly multi-modal, so new types of inputs should be embraced, such as new sensors. Many different ideas can be explored and can emerge going forward.”
However, shifting from smartphones to AI phones is not the only initiative Samsung is undertaking.
