By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled its latest Galaxy S25 smartphones, powered by Qualcomm (NASDAQ:) chips and Google's artificial intelligence model, in hopes that updated AI features will revitalize sales and ward off Apple (NASDAQ: ):) And Chinese competitors.
Samsung (KS:) also previewed a thinner version of its flagship models at the end of an event in California, aiming to launch the Galaxy S25 Edge in the first half of this year before Apple's expected rollout of the slimmer iPhone.
Samsung was faster than Apple in launching a smartphone powered by artificial intelligence, but it failed to regain its crown in the global smartphone market last year, under the weight of competition with the American competitor in the premium market and with Chinese companies in the lower sector.
“We are one step ahead of the industry in terms of offering AI features,” Park Ji-sun, executive vice president who leads Samsung’s linguistic AI team, told Reuters. “I think we are moving in the right direction.”
Samsung has kept the pricing of the Galaxy S25 series unchanged at between $799 and $1,299.
The new Galaxy S25 uses Alphabet's (NASDAQ:) Google's Gemini as its virtual AI engine, and features Samsung's upgraded in-house voice assistant, Bixby, Park said.
He said the two tools complement each other, and Bixby plays a key role at Samsung, whose products include mobile phones, televisions and home appliances.
Differentiating Bixby will be a challenge for Samsung, said Forrester analyst Thomas Howson.
“I don't think there's really a killer app today that you know is going to convince them (consumers), 'Okay, I'm going to buy this app because it's an AI smartphone,'” he said.
However, Howson added that AI features could create a halo effect around the Samsung brand.
The Galaxy S25 will provide a more personalized AI experience. For example, the “Now Summary” service – which makes recommendations to users based on personal data stored and processed on the phone for privacy reasons – will display a range of personalized items such as calendars, news, bedroom air temperature and carbon dioxide. Park levels said.
The phone will be able to perform multiple tasks with a single command, such as finding upcoming sporting events and then adding them to users' calendars.
Samsung shares fell 1.1%, lagging the broader market's loss of 0.4%.
Samsung has used Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform across its entire Galaxy S25 lineup, ditching its own Exynos mobile chip, a major change in strategy for a company that had previously used both to gain more bargaining power with suppliers.
The use of a Qualcomm chip is a setback for the South Korean company's chip business, which counts its mobile division as one of its main customers.
Samsung did not say why it decided not to use its own chips in the new model.
One of the people familiar with the matter said that Samsung is looking to use the Exynos chip in its foldable phones scheduled for launch later this year.
“The sale of the Galaxy S25 series is important at a time when sales of Samsung's foldable phones are stagnating in the face of challenges from Chinese companies,” said Lim Soo-jeong, associate director at research firm Counterpoint.
Samsung's preliminary fourth-quarter earnings, released earlier this month, fell short of estimates by a large margin due to chip development costs and higher competition in the smartphone market.
