Amid declining market share in China’s smartphone industry, Apple has started conversations to somehow offer Apple Intelligence features.
Apple is suffering from a unique challenge that is consistently reducing its market share in the Chinese smartphone industry. Apple’s latest devices boast advanced AI features globally, except in China. In China, all AI features have been banned from public release unless local regulatory bodies give it a go-ahead.
The setback is also fueled by ongoing tensions between the US and China over technological information sharing and privacy concerns. To overcome the limitations, Apple is reportedly in talks with Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent to introduce AI features to iPhones, iPads, and MACs sold in China.
The US firm recently rolled out its AI capabilities into devices this month and is continually updating them to enable more functions, including ChatGPT integrations to analyze internal images, videos, audio, and other documents. Another AI feature reportedly being pushed in China is the integration of ChatGPT with virtual assistant Siri to enhance responses.
For now, ChatGPT is not available in China as the country’s regulatory requirements mandate that generative AI services acquire government approvals before public release. Apple stands at an edge in this situation due to a lack of local partners to support its move to get approvals.
Apple’s discussions with Tencent and ByteDance about using their AI models can give it a segue to introduce AI features on Chinese iPhones and other devices. However, the conversation is only at an early stage and all three companies have declined to comment on media houses’ queries around the topic.
Using this opportunity, other players in China, including Huawei, are rapidly growing their market share by including AI features powered by local AI models ByteDance's Doubao, Tencent's Hunyuan, and search engine giant Baidu's Ernie.
Huawei reintroduced its smartphone range in China back in August and has witnessed a 42% surge in sales in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Apple’s sales in China dropped by 0.3% in the same quarter owing to the lack of AI capabilities offered by its closest competitors.
Suppose AI features are not approved on Apple devices. In that case, the products’ price range will act negatively for the company as other smartphone manufacturers partner with AI companies to offer more features at a much lower price band.
