Huawei Armed With New AI-Enhanced Chipset for Battle With iPhone
September 02 2017 - 8:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Dan Strumpf
Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. launched a new
chipset with built-in artificial-intelligence capabilities to power
its next-generation smartphones and take on rivals Apple Inc. and
Samsung Electronics Co.
Though Huawei is well known in the smartphone business--it is
No. 3 world-wide behind Apple and Samsung--it is lesser known as a
maker of chips for its own phones. The company says its new Kirin
970 chip will power its forthcoming Mate 10 smartphone, set to
launch next month to compete against the coming 10th-anniversary
iPhone.
Huawei's new chipset was unveiled Saturday at the IFA
electronics trade show in Berlin. It comes as the company has been
pouring resources into the more profitable high-end phone market,
long dominated by Apple. Its current flagship phone, the P10,
launched this year with a base price of $685.
The Shenzhen-based company has said the Mate 10 will have
improved camera and battery life. It also said the new Kirin
chipset will power stronger image-recognition abilities and other
camera features on its phones.
While Huawei's rivals are likely working on chip upgrades as
well, "making AI computation faster and more efficient will give
Huawei an edge, if it can demonstrate improved performance or
battery life when conducting everyday tasks," said Tim Coulling,
analyst at electronics-research firm Canalys.
Huawei has been steadily gaining market share from rivals in the
smartphone wars. In China, where Apple has been losing ground,
Huawei recaptured the top spot from Chinese brand Oppo in the first
quarter, according to Canalys.
Globally, it had 10% of the market in the first quarter,
according to Canalys, behind Samsung's 23% and Apple's 15%. While
it is a major player in Europe, its sales remain low in the
U.S.
Write to Dan Strumpf at daniel.strumpf@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 02, 2017 08:29 ET (12:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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