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Pricey high-tech features define new smartphone wars [ad_1]



FRANKFURT: The front lines of the battle for smartphone dominance over the coming years have grown clearer after Chinese technology firm Huawei presented an AI-powered phone designed to go head-to-head with Samsung and Apple.

Features needed to propel a device into the top end are growing increasingly complex and expensive to develop, meaning only the companies with the deepest expertise and pockets can hope to compete.

On the outside, the differences between phones from the world's three biggest smartphone makers are small: they boast a screen stretching from edge to edge, dual cameras for high-quality photos and big batteries.

Under the hood, the investments Samsung, Apple and Huawei have made into technology at the heart of the devices is what they hope will set them apart.

Both US giant Apple and Chinese firm Huawei have bet on artificial intelligence capabilities designed to take some of the load off users' shoulders, showcasing them in their phones' cameras at glossy launch events.

Announcing its iPhone X last month, Apple showed off unlocking the device by recognising the owner's face.

Huawei on Monday demonstrated its newest smartphone Mate 10 recognising when it was pointed at a plate of food, a vase of flowers or a family pet and adjusting its camera settings automatically.

Systems like these are based on so-called "machine learning" -- meaning that rather than a human programmer working out from scratch how to recognise a face, for example, a piece of software teaches itself to identify patterns by sifting through mountains of data.

Huawei said it had trained its camera on 100 million photos to achieve its speedy image recognition, and also showcased the Mate 10's power for language translation or housekeeping tasks like organising files.

Both Apple and Huawei have built specialist machine learning capabilities into the processors that power their phones, which could give third-party app developers all over the world the chance to think up new uses for the technique.

"AI is no longer a virtual concept but something that intertwines with our daily life," Huawei consumer devices chief Richard Yu said Monday, promising "a new era of intelligent smartphones".

The latest round of the smartphone wars also showcases just how huge the investments needed to compete for a podium position have become.

6 'most-popular' smartphones across the world in first half of 2017

6 'most-popular' smartphones across the world in first half of 2017

Wonder which are the most popular smartphones of the first half of the year 2017? The smartphones that sold most in the first six months of the year? Research firm IHS has released a list that it claims are the highest-selling smartphones of the year (first half to be precise). But if you thought that the ranking is dominated by all new models (the ones launched this year), you got it wrong. The list is led by the smartphone launched last year. In fact, it has as many as four phones from last year. Read on for the complete list ...

Apple iPhone 7

The iPhone 7 -- Apple's last year's flagship smartphone -- outsold all other smartphones globally during the first six months of 2017. The smartphone launched in India in October 2016 and is currently priced at Rs 49,000 onwards. In terms of specifications, iPhone 7 features a 4.7-inch Retina HD display and is powered by the quad-core Apple A10 Fusion processor, which the company claims is 40% faster that Apple A9.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

At second position is the bigger sibling of the Apple's last year's flagship smartphone, the iPhone 7 Plus. Currently, this device is selling at a starting price of Rs 59,000. It features a 5.5-inch screen with 3D touch Retina HD display and also runs quad-core Apple A10 Fusion processor. One major difference between the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus is the camera as the latter features a dual 12MP rear camera setup with 2x optical zooming capability up to 56mm.

Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus

The only budget smartphone on this list, the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime Plus was launched last year but never made it to India. It was launched in Russia by the name Galaxy J2 Prime. The handset features a 5-inch IPS display and is powered by a MediaTek MT6737T quad-core processor with 1.5/2GB of RAM. It packs a 2600mAh battery and sports an 8MP camera at the back and a 5MP at the front.

Apple iPhone 6s

At number 4 on IHS' ranking is another Apple smartphone -- iPhone 6S Plus. Incidentally, this was the highest selling smartphone of the year 2016 and is currently selling at a starting price of Rs 40,000. iPhone 6S runs on Apple's A9 processor, which is claimed to be 70% faster than the company's previous-generation A8 chipset. The smartphone comes with 3D Touch, 2GB RAM and 12MP iSight rear camera, capable of shooting 4K videos. The front FaceTime camera is 5MP.

Samsung Galaxy S8

Samsung's current flagship smartphone, Galaxy S8 ranks at number 5 position on the list of most popular smartphone. According to the IHS report, the Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship series recorded a smaller shipment volume this year likely because "Samsung began selling the Galaxy S8 and S8+ models in April, a month later than last year’s launch of the S7 series." The handset is currently selling in India at Rs 53,900.

Galaxy S8 Plus

Lastly, the bigger screen variant of the Galaxy S8 smartphone -- Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus -- makes its entry at the sixth spot. As mentioned earlier, the S8 series was a bit behind as compared to its predecessors S7 series due to its availability. According to the report, the "shipment ranking of the Galaxy S8 Plus fell to number six, compared to the fourth-place Galaxy S7 Edge in 2016.”




"Alongside Samsung and Apple, Huawei's growing technology capabilities threaten to place market leadership beyond the financial resources" of smaller firms, said Ian Fogg, mobile and telecoms industry expert at research firm IHS Markit.

In 2016, the Chinese group reported 76.4 billion yuan ($11.6 billion; 9.8 billion euros) of spending on research and development, with its massive telecoms infrastructure business helping fuel its drive for handset dominance.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics reported spending 14.8 trillion won ($13.1 billion), while Apple forked out just over $10 billion.

But however much cash firms fling at flashy features, in the end their success will rest on the devices' reception by the general public -- and the armies of programmers writing the apps that will run on the phones.

"Huawei's challenge is how to maximise the use of its AI chip given it does not develop or control the smartphone operating system its devices use, Android, unlike Apple," IHS' Fogg said.

Apple tightly controls its whole devices, from hardware through the operating system to third-party apps, meaning developers know exactly what they can expect when programming for the iPhone.

Google's Android system is more open, but the operating system is used on thousands of phone models from different manufacturers, all with widely varying specifications.




Android app makers may fear it is not worth their time to write specialist AI-enabled software for Huawei's device alone, missing out on hundreds of millions of other potential customers in the Android universe.



Huawei is aware of the risk, Yu told AFP.



Seeking to ward off the danger, the Shenzhen-based firm has made its phone compatible with AI toolkits from Facebook and Google, making it easier for programmers to tap into its processor's special powers.



"Apple, their system is their system. It's always been like that. We're trying to do an open eco-system," Yu said.



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