{"id":524459,"date":"2026-03-09T11:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524459\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T11:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:46:18","slug":"samsung-seeks-ai-deals-to-challenge-apples-smartphone-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524459\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung seeks AI deals to challenge Apple\u2019s smartphone lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

Samsung wants to strike new strategic deals with AI companies to integrate a variety of models into its smartphones in an effort to erode Apple\u2019s lead in the global market.<\/p>\n

TM Roh, the Korean tech giant\u2019s consumer device chief, told the FT it was \u201copen to strategic co-operation\u201d with more AI groups such as OpenAI, having recently added the Perplexity AI search engine to its mobile operating system.<\/p>\n

He said Samsung\u2019s research shows consumers are increasingly using several AI services rather than relying on a single platform, adding that greater choice could help Galaxy devices stand out in a market where Apple has yet to roll out many of the AI features it unveiled last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got into the preparation earlier than others, [and] that is how we have taken and maintained leadership in mobile AI,\u201d said Roh, who is co-chief executive of Samsung Electronics.<\/p>\n

\"Bar<\/p>\n

The manoeuvring highlights how AI is becoming the next front in the battle for smartphone users. <\/p>\n

With global handset sales stagnating and hardware upgrades offering only marginal gains, manufacturers are betting that AI-powered assistants and search tools will influence which brand they buy next.<\/p>\n

Counterpoint Research last week forecast that global shipments will fall 12 per cent in 2026, the lowest annual volume since 2013.<\/p>\n

Last week, Samsung announced its family of S26 devices, which includes a suite of new AI tools. Perplexity has been added to the operating system, allowing users to ask \u201cHey Plex\u201d to summon its voice assistant.<\/p>\n

Samsung has already integrated Google\u2019s Gemini models into its devices, and last week showcased a voice assistant that can book a taxi without users pressing a button.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers are not bound to one AI platform, they are utilising multiple AI models,\u201d Roh said. \u201cWe are open to all solutions\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. choice, I believe, is how Galaxy AI appeals to consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TMTM Roh: \u2018We got into the preparation earlier than others, [and] that is how we have taken and maintained leadership in mobile AI\u2019 \u00a9 Nathan Laine\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n

The race to offer the most advanced AI agents has prompted a flurry of dealmaking with smartphone makers that control access to millions of consumers. OpenAI is also building its own family of AI devices.<\/p>\n

Apple, which has struggled to update its \u201cApple Intelligence\u201d suite of tools, struck a deal in January to use Google\u2019s Gemini models.<\/p>\n

It has also leaned on OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT to add smarter search and writing functions. Apple is expected to release an overhauled Siri voice assistant this year.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Samsung has also opted to raise US prices for its S26 range by $100 for two models, partly owing to a memory chip supply crunch.<\/p>\n

Memory suppliers, including SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung itself, have prioritised making high-bandwidth memory for AI data centres over chips used in smartphones.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of this is affected by the current ongoing expansion of AI infrastructure,\u201d Roh said. <\/p>\n

The International Data Corporation this week warned a \u201ctsunami-like shock\u201d was hitting the market, reversing a \u201cdecade-long trend in which consumers consistently received smartphones with better specifications at lower prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple defied some analyst expectations last year when it opted not to raise prices for the new iPhone 17 family, with sales of the new devices helping deliver a record holiday quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-524459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}