Oppo to introduce GenAI features in entry-level smartphones, says global executive

Peter Dohyung Lee, Head of Product Strategy, OPPO

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo plans to integrate generative AI (GenAI) features across its entire smartphone product lineup, including entry-level devices, by the end of 2024, a global executive said.

"We have a dedicated team for AI at our R&D centre. We have filed over 5,600 AI-related patents over the past decade. AI should not be exclusive to just flagship phones and selected users. We will integrate Gen AI features across OPPO’s entire smartphone product lineup by the end of 2024," said Peter Dohyung Lee, Head of Product Strategy at Oppo.

"We will also bring AI to entry-level phones," he told Moneycontrol.

The executive said most of the existing GenAI features will be available on Oppo's entry-level smartphones. However, "some features that require high-end hardware capability will not be available in the entry segment."

The company is hyper-localising some AI features for the Indian market, specifically those related to multimedia use cases. "Our local team works on photo and video editing and has customised recording summaries with Hindi support. We expect more use cases to be localised," he added.

Oppo aims to sell over 50 million smartphones with GenAI features globally. "Oppo will roll out over 100 Generative AI capabilities to its phones this year."

Oppo expanded its premium Reno series on July 12 with the launch of Reno 12 smartphones. The executive said that the series will help accelerate the adoption of AI Phones.

"In India, we have maintained a steady double-digit growth yearly in Reno sales since 2021. We are also expecting a similar growth trend in Reno sales this year with the new series," Lee said.

The Reno 12 series, the executive claimed, has the highest number of AI features in its price category.

In India, 1.2 million AI-capable devices were shipped in the March quarter. According to market tracker Canalys, this number is expected to reach 4-5 million units by December, or about 3.2 percent of the total 156 million shipments forecast for 2024.

South Korea's Samsung is currently the leading smartphone brand in India promoting GenAI features in its devices. Chinese brands such as Realme and Xiaomi have also begun introducing their AI-enabled smartphones to the market.

According to Counterpoint Research, GenAI's share of overall smartphone shipments will reach 11 percent by 2024 and 43 percent by 2027, passing 550 million units in 2027 with 4X growth.

The market tracker expects the GenAI smartphone installed base to cross 1 billion by 2027. "Given Apple’s anticipated entry into the segment later this year, these estimates are higher than Counterpoint’s earlier forecast of December 2023.

GenAI smartphone is a mobile device that leverages large-scale, pre-trained generative AI models to create original content or perform contextually-aware tasks.

"Going forward, we expect GenAI smartphones to hit an inflexion point in 2025 as the devices permeate the broader price segments, especially the $400-$599 price tier. The ≥$600 and $400-$599 price bands will account for 9 out of every 10 GenAI smartphones sold in 2024," Counterpoint said.

The Chinese company has collaborated with partners like Google, Microsoft, and MediaTek to power its AI-enabled smartphones. "The development and application of AI Phones require active cooperation within the industry to build a shared ecosystem," he said.

Oppo's Reno and flagship smartphone series will feature the Google Gemini family LLMs, bringing AI features such as AI Toolbox, including AI Writer and AI Recording Summary.

Under its partnership with Microsoft, the handset company aims to strengthen the connection between desktop AI and phones. It will equip future Oppo phones with Microsoft Fast transcription and Neural TTS technologies for an accurate and natural voice and text conversion experience.

Within this year, Oppo users can use desktop Copilot to generate content, translate text messages, and search addresses on their smartphones via a connected PC.

The executive said chip makers like MediaTek and Qualcomm are helping it bring on-device AI features.

Speaking of trends, Lee said the market will focus more on phones' durability and security. "People are keeping their phones longer; hence, they want more durable phones with better battery life. Security is also something they are concerned about, and we are focused on ensuring that software and hardware security is protected."