Enjoy the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones at the launch event in New York. (Photo by ED … [+]
Next week we will see the launch of the Pixel 9 family of smartphones at the Made By Google event of the same name. The annual event allows Google to show what it thinks a smartphone should represent. Last year’s Pixel 8 family offered new displays, improved cameras, updated software and the custom-designed Tensor Mobile chipset.
All these changes allowed Google to present the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro as the first smartphones with AI. In the process he defined how genetic AI would be introduced to the mobile world. A year later, with this view of the market now the norm, Google can build on that success, solidify its view of smartphone AI, and control the all-important AI high ground.
This week, Google can do it all again, except this time, it’s not about defining the market but strengthening it.
Google has several AI tools that the Pixel platform has shown off, and similar tools are available from several Android manufacturers. You have tools to remove, move or edit individual elements of a photo. you have the option to move expressions between photos to get the best possible composite image, and you have tools to clean up audio recorded in a video.
You have tools to transcribe audio, summarize information from web pages and emails, and search based on a screenshot or even a circular portion of the screen. AI can help screen spam calls, act as a translator while you travel, and suggest answers, topics, and more when you’re creating on your phone.
All of these debuted on the Pixel 8 family before reverberating across the ecosystem. In fact, Google’s circle-to-search feature debuted with Samsung’s Galaxy AI platform, which mirrored many of the Pixel’s features and added many of its own. Other manufacturers introduced their own AI tools, and chipmakers ensured that support for AI routines was built in to support AI code.
All of this followed the same direction and ethos that Google set publicly with the Pixel 8. That direction will only be highlighted this week with the launch of the Pixel 9 and a host of new AI features.
There’s also another competitive aspect with the rise of genre-defining AI on Android. Apple is nowhere to be seen.
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers remarks at the start of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) … [+]
The launch of Google’s Pixel came two weeks after the launch of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Apple’s launch in September didn’t feature genetic AI or any of the new frontiers to be explored. Arguably, the iPhone 15 family was the last of the major smartphone pillars to launch without AI. Apple’s first chance to talk about AI for the iPhone didn’t come until its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
The awkwardly named Apple Intelligence software would not be readily available. it would have to wait for the release of the iPhone 16 family in September. There would be no backport on any existing iPhones (except for the 2023 iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max). Nor will Apple Intelligence be ready for the iPhone 16 launch in September 2024. A limited set of tools will be included in an October iOS update, a core ChatGPT app by the end of the year, and the full suite shown at WWDC it will only arrive in the first half of 2024.
Apple has yet to reach the first generation of AI smartphones,
Meanwhile, Google is promoting Android with its second generation of AI smartphones ready to be unveiled to the public. Google is the company that will make the decision about the future direction of artificial intelligence.
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