Huawei’s vision for the smartphone of tomorrow was presented to the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. It is one where the phone could probably be smarter than you.
CEO Richard Yu reinforced Huawei’s commitment to fueling innovation and collaboration with leading partners, to transform the way people experience the world. Huawei is now the world’s number three smartphone maker – nipping at the heels of Samsung and Apple so it can set the agenda.
Yu shared Huawei’s vision of the next frontier in mobile: the Intelligent Phone, an AI-powered device that will improve every part of our lives.
Yu announced the company’s latest collaboration with industry leaders Amazon and Google and revealed that the Huawei Mate 9 will be available in the U.S. to be followed by the Mate 9 Pro and the Porsche Design Mate 9 – its first Google Daydream-ready smartphones.
{loadposition ray}
Following is an edited version of Yu’s address.
Fueling Innovation with Passion
Yu pointed to the three pillars the Huawei brand – passion, collective wisdom and meaningful innovation – to explain the company’s success. In 2016, Huawei shipped more than 139 million smartphones, a 29% increase over 2015. According to IPSOS, its global brand awareness has also seen steady growth, rising from 76% to 81%, with a 66.7% and 100% increase in overseas user consideration and preference.
Through its continued investment in R&D, which surpassed $38 billion over the last 10 years, Huawei will drive the next era of innovation to inspire and empower mankind. As part of this strategy, Huawei will leverage the collective wisdom of the world’s brightest minds, both within and outside the company, to help shape the next era of consumer technology. Most recently, Huawei opened the new Max Berek Innovation Lab with Leica, deepening its strategic partnership with the world leader in photography and imaging.
Introducing the Intelligent phone for the Intelligent World
Huawei is paving the way to create transformative experiences that will ultimately bring the Intelligent phone to life. Yu pointed to a new period of evolution ahead of us – initially, the PC gave us a portal to access information; the Internet followed, which let us share information; today we live in an existence where everything is connected. Yu calls this an intelligent world where devices are constantly sensing and gathering data about our environments.
To thrive in this intelligent world, the advent of artificial intelligence integrated into today’s smartphones offers us a significant leap forward and brings us one step closer to the next phase in mobile - the Intelligent Phone. The AI-powered Intelligent Phone will be able to anticipate our needs with new functionality that will truly match the way we think and feel.
To bring the Intelligent Phone to life, Yu discussed the design needs of this dynamic, new device which will emulate the human capacity to interact with and understand the world around it. For example, the Intelligent Phone will need advanced computer vision to see and understand its surroundings. It will need more intelligent and developed microphones through which to hear and identify different sounds. It will require advances in power and battery life to process vast amounts of information.
To accelerate the development of the Intelligent Phone, Huawei is working to further develop its sensor technology, machine learning, data management and chipset. By embracing these new advances, Huawei believes the Intelligent Phone will unify digital and human intelligence to make our lives better.
Yu said that currently, people connect with the digital world using their smartphones. In the future, the Intelligent Phone will change all of this. The Intelligent phone will be an extension of who we are – an indispensable part of our lives that uses artificial intelligence to adapt to our needs, allowing us to seamlessly interact with the real and digital worlds.
Collaborating with Industry Leaders
Today Huawei is working in close partnership with some of the most exciting and innovative companies. Yu unveiled landmark partnerships with Amazon and Google as collaborations that will accelerate the development of new, innovative technologies and experiences.
He also revealed that the Huawei Mate 9 will be available in the U.S. from January 6, starting at US$599.99, in Space Gray and Moonlight Silver. It will be sold in BestBuy and from e-retailers Amazon, NewEgg, and B&H. Mate 9 will be Huawei’s first smartphone to come with the voice-interactive app, Amazon Alexa.
Steve Rabuchin, Vice President of Amazon Alexa, introduced the Mate 9 with Alexa: “With Amazon Alexa on Huawei’s Mate 9, customers can easily perform everyday tasks while on the go – using just their voice. This includes controlling their smart home, checking the news, requesting a ride from services like Uber, and more.”
The Huawei Mate 9 Pro and Huawei Porsche Design Mate 9 are Huawei’s first Google Daydream-ready devices for users to explore immersive virtual reality content and experiences.
According to Amit Singh, Vice President of Business and Operations for Google’s Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality team, in 2017, in addition to bringing high quality VR on Huawei devices through Daydream, Google and Huawei will work together to offer high quality smartphone AR on Huawei devices through Project Tango’s motion tracking, area learning and depth perception technologies.
These partnerships and Huawei’s expansive ecosystem of global partners are strategic collaborations that will lead to richer, more rewarding integration over time to help shape the next era of consumer technology.
Yu concluded, “Today our focus is to bridge innovation and technology, create an elite ecosystem of industry visionaries and offer products that significantly enhance the way people connect with one another. As we look to the future, we’re at the threshold of an exciting new era where we’re breaking through barriers to improve the way we interact with the world. The introduction of the Intelligent Phone is the next evolution in mobile that will provide intelligence to every aspect of our lives, enriching the way we experience the world around us.”
Note that Huawei has a significant Australian presence and support and iTWire will be reviewing its Mate 9 shortly.