Most of the best-selling smartphones are not AI phones

AI (artificial intelligence) phones are predicted to lead the smartphone trend in 2025, but to date, 9/10 of the best-selling products do not integrate this technology.

'AI phone fever' and the paradox in sales rankings

In late 2024 - early 2025, the global mobile market witnessed a strong wave of "AI phone" models with the participation of all major brands in the market such as Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, Google, Honor... Artificial intelligence tools quickly appeared in the high-end and mid-range segments, bringing a number of new features, adding image editing capabilities, optimizing performance and battery...

AI phones have yet to gain traction as predicted by 2024

Photo: Anh Quan

But according to the latest report from market research firm Counterpoint Research, up to 9 out of 10 best-selling smartphones globally in Q1/2025 are not AI phones. The only model in the Top 10 with integrated artificial intelligence is Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra, ranked 7th on the list.

Specifically, Apple still dominates the rankings with 4 iPhone models occupying the top positions. In 5th place is the Galaxy A16 5G (Samsung), a smartphone in the low-cost segment. In 6th and 7th place are Samsung with the Galaxy A06, Galaxy S25 Ultra, and giving way to 8th place for Xiaomi's Redmi 14C 4G, before adding another product, the Galaxy A55 5G, in 9th place. At the bottom of the list of 10 best-selling smartphones in the first 3 months of this year is the iPhone 16 Plus, a device that "should" have AI but Apple failed to fulfill its advertising promise.

In fact, positions 1, 2, 3 respectively are iPhone 16, 16 Pro Max and 16 Pro, all expected to be AI phones because Apple spent a lot of time at the product launch talking about the advantages of this product when it comes with artificial intelligence expected to be present in the software version released in the fourth quarter of 2024.

But Apple seems to have exaggerated its capabilities in the context of being under pressure to compete in the AI race from competitors, advertising AI as an important feature that will change the way users use their phones. In reality, "apple" is the only major phone company that has not done anything complete with AI, and is considered by experts to be a "disaster" for being slower than its competitors.

Apple fails to deliver on its promise to deliver artificial intelligence to users on time

Photo: Anh Quan

Apple's current Intelligence features are disjointed and underperforming, and Siri — Apple's once-proud virtual assistant — is now one of the least intelligent tools on the market.

Are AI phones really important?

Looking at the sales of the current best-selling group, Apple's AI disaster does not seem to reflect the true demand of users for an AI phone. With sales continuing to lead, this smart tool does not seem to be too important to users, or maybe because Apple did so well in promising the iPhone 16 series will explode with features with Apple Intelligence that users continue to put their trust in the company.

In the rest of the market, after the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung continues to add a series of new AI features on the Galaxy S25 series, adding context to make AI more vivid. Other phone manufacturers, especially those from China such as Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo... are also very active in this field. Up to now, almost all manufacturers have had one or more AI features on phones from 10 million VND or more.

Apple launches iPhone 16 with integrated AI software

However, user choices show that AI phones are not the top priority, but are just an addition, increasing the experience. The core elements of the new product are what win customers' hearts. The choices in the Top 10 over the quarters and years have fluctuated little: iPhone usually holds most of the positions and always has models in the top rankings, Samsung will have a flagship in the Top 10 and a couple of mid-range models, the rest may belong to some Android phone manufacturer.

LifeHacker assessed that this order reflects the user's tendency to be loyal to the brand, as iPhone users continue to choose new models when they need to change, only wondering which version of the models Apple has just launched because they are afraid of changing the device ecosystem. Similarly, Samsung users will continue to choose Galaxy to 'upgrade'...

The emergence of AI phones is only to stimulate the market to change devices when hardware begins to saturate, users need new features to enhance the experience. However, in case the phone does not have AI features, users can still supplement it by downloading and installing auxiliary software, from ChatGPT, Gemini to photo and video editing applications.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hau-het-smartphone-ban-chay-nhat-khong-phai-dien-thoai-ai-185250602094033054.htm