Samsung’s North America CEO says the smartphone is just an entry point to ambient AI of the home
Good morning. With Apple likely to launch a foldable iPhone this fall, category pioneer Samsung will this morning try to cement its lead in the premium category. To get a sense of what’s at stake, I spoke with Yoonie Joung, the president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America before today’s Galaxy Unpacked event in London. Joung talked about the power of embedding AI and creating new form factors in the saturated global smartphone market.
Samsung’s eighth generation of devices is rumored to include three distinct models, from an everyday phone for immersive consumption to a premium-grade version designed for content creation and business use. What’s clear is that Samsung will leverage its expanding partnership with Google to deepen the mobile AI experience. As Joung said yesterday: “It’s not merely an agent, but something that understands me perfectly and understands the context, not just answering the questions that I ask, but understanding my intention and the contextual background of my everyday life.”
Joung knows all too well the stakes for his company in the North American market. Samsung makes up about a quarter of smartphone sales while Apple accounts for more than half the market. But Joung argues that the phone is just an entry point to the ambient AI of the home where Samsung has created a strong ecosystem of AI-enabled appliances, entertainment systems, and other elements of the smart home. “We have a camera inside the refrigerator that can monitor produce, check the expiration date, come up with a recipe from existing ingredients and then send information to the oven that will automatically set the temperature for cooking.”
Joung has concerns too, from the cost of compute and energy to enterprise risks. “We were hesitant to use AI for our work because of security issues and a fear of confidential information being leaked,” he said, adding that “the upsides of AI far outweigh the downside.” And of course, he knows that new products offer new opportunities to build brand loyalty in a market where whoever creates the most compelling ecosystem will win.
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