“Thrilled to collaborate with Google on upcoming Xiaomi flagship devices for international markets,” Xiaomi founder, chairman and chief executive Lei Jun wrote in a post on X, following an announcement at the two-day Google I/O Connect China event in Beijing that concluded on Thursday.
“Leveraging Google Cloud and Gemini, we’re set to offer smarter, more intuitive experiences,” he added.
The upcoming Xiaomi 15 smartphones are widely expected to be introduced later this year, in line with previous launches for the 12 series in 2021, the 13 line in 2022 and the 14 series in 2023.
Xiaomi founder, chairman and chief executive Lei Jun speaks at an event in Beijing on July 19, 2024. Photo: AFP
No announcement has been made for the LLM – the technology behind generative AI (GenAI) services like ChatGPT – that Xiaomi will integrate into its 15 series for the mainland. Xiaomi has developed its own AI model, named MiLM, according to Chinese regulatory filings in May.
Google’s Gemini, like other foreign AI services, is not available on the mainland, where internet watchdog the Cyberspace Administration of China requires preregistration and review of AI systems and applications.
That could provide some momentum for Beijing-based Xiaomi, which research firm IDC ranked as the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor in the second quarter with a 14.8 per cent market share. Samsung Electronics and Apple led the industry in the same quarter with shares of 18.8 per cent and 15.8 per cent, respectively, according to IDC data.
Worldwide GenAI smartphone shipments in 2024 are forecast to grow 363.6 per cent year on year to 234.2 million units, according to an IDC report last month. Meanwhile, IDC figures show that global smartphone shipments rose 6.5 per cent year on year to 285.4 million units in the second quarter.
Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence model is expected to be integrated into more smartphone models worldwide this year. Photo: Shutterstock
Apple, which is set to install Apple Intelligence on its iPhones later this year, is expected to work with a Chinese AI provider partner for handsets sold on the mainland.
Apart from Xiaomi, Oppo is also using Gemini on its Android smartphones for international markets. Oppo tied with Vivo in the second quarter in rankings as the world’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor, each with a 9 per cent market share, according to IDC data.
“Our close collaboration with Google is producing incredible results in high productivity AI features using Gemini models,” Oppo chief product officer Pete Lau, also the founder of OnePlus, wrote in a post on X, following an announcement at Google’s two-day event in Beijing.
At that event, Oppo showcased AI features powered by Gemini. These included real-time translation, summarising article and other multimodal content-generation functions. Oppo has already made Gemini available on the international version of its Reno12-series handsets, with enhancements expected later this year.
