smartphone

StepFun, an AI startup invested by Tencent, has released the STEPX Neo phone, which features an AI intelligent agent directly built into the operating system rather than as an external application. The phone began pre-sales on the evening of October 13, priced at 3999 yuan (approximately 560 USD), with its official sale starting on October 16. Pre-sale channels include JD.com, Tmall, and Douyin. Users do not need to open a ride-hailing app to input addresses and select vehicles; they simply need to inform the destination, and the intelligent agent can autonomously complete the subsequent steps. StepFun stated at the launch event that in the era of intelligent agents, AI is no longer an additional feature of smartphones but is the product itself.The device runs on the Step AOS 1 system, which the company claims is designed from the ground up for intelligent agents, featuring long-term memory, task scheduling, and security control capabilities, composed of a mix of Android, Linux, and real-time operating system components. The system uses the MCP protocol to break down functions such as messages, applications, files, and settings into small modules that can be directly called by the intelligent agent, giving users two entry points: a traditional application grid and an intelligent agent space. The intelligent agent is named Amoo, which saves two types of memory: user factual preferences and task execution experiences. Simple commands are processed by a small model on the device, some of which can run offline, while complex cross-application requests are handled by a large model in the cloud. A second MiniLED screen on the back of the device can display Amoo's execution status.Nearly 100 companies and products, including Alipay, Tencent, Trip.com, Didi, and Meituan, have integrated with Amoo. Payments, travel bookings, and content creation are still completed by their respective platforms. This is an alternative path for StepFun in response to the major application blockages faced by ByteDance's Doubao, which previously used screen reading and simulated clicking solutions. StepFun was founded in 2023 by former Microsoft Vice President Jiang Daxin. Its self-developed flagship large model, Step 5 Preview, was launched in September, with a parameter scale of 600 billion and a single activation of 27 billion, supporting a context of 1 million tokens; the earlier released Step 3.5 Flash was open-sourced under the Apache 2 license. The price of 3999 yuan includes a 12-month STEPX Token plan, providing 100 billion tokens per month, while the AI costs after the first year have not yet been announced.

According to a report by ZDNet Korea on October 15, Samsung Electronics has lowered its production plan for mid-range and low-end smartphones in the fourth quarter. The reasons include rising prices of memory chips and disruptions in the supply of glass fiber used in PCB raw materials CCL. Japan's Nitto Denko is shifting more production capacity towards T-glass for AI semiconductors, reducing the output of E-glass for smartphone PCBs, leading to supply shortages and price increases. E-glass is used in semi-cured sheets for smartphone motherboards HDI and RFPCB.The report states that after the rise in storage prices increased manufacturing costs, Samsung reduced orders for related components. Models like the Galaxy A have lower profitability, making it difficult to significantly increase production. This year, the prices of basic mid-range models have risen by more than 100,000 Korean Won compared to the previous generation. The outlook for component orders communicated to partners for the fourth quarter corresponds to an annual smartphone shipment volume of just over 230 million units, which is below the component industry's expectation of 240 million units and represents a decrease of 20% to 30% compared to before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. Plans for the mobile business next year have not been shared with partners as in previous years.The monthly production outlook for the fourth quarter in mid-September was 14.3 million units in October, 9.5 million units in November, and 7.6 million units in December, totaling 31.4 million units. This was adjusted at the beginning of this month to 9.9 million units in October, 7.6 million units in November, and 6.7 million units in December, totaling 24.2 million units, a reduction of 23%. While the production of mid-range and low-end models has been lowered, the shipment plans for flagship models like the Galaxy S27 at the beginning of next year remain at a high level, and the shipment volume for foldable phones is also planned to increase. The MX and Network divisions reported a loss of 735 billion Korean Won in the second quarter, with the securities industry projecting an annual loss of 400 billion Korean Won.

Market research firm IDC stated that the smartphone market experienced the most severe decline on record in the September quarter, with shipments dropping by 22%, primarily affected by rising storage costs, and the situation is expected to worsen.Over the past year, rising storage costs, driven mainly by demand from the artificial intelligence industry, have harmed the profitability of the mobile industry, forcing companies to raise prices, cut specifications, and abandon models aimed at the budget market. Among major brands, Xiaomi and Oppo were hit the hardest, while Apple and Samsung performed relatively better due to their larger portfolio of high-end models.

Financial Associated Press reported on October 12, citing market research firm Counterpoint Research, that the ongoing construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure continues to squeeze the supply of storage chips, putting pressure on costs and supply in consumer electronics. Preliminary data shows that global smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2026 are expected to decline by 20% year-on-year, reaching the lowest level for the same period since 2012. The storage chip crisis has impacted the smartphone market for the second consecutive quarter, with rising chip costs increasing the overall bill of materials, leading manufacturers to raise retail prices. Since 2026, global smartphone retail prices have cumulatively increased by about 20%.Samsung remains the global leader, with its market share rising to 23% in the third quarter, although shipments declined by 3% year-on-year, marking the largest share increase among major manufacturers. Apple's share rose to 22%, marking its first time surpassing 20% in the third quarter, but shipments declined year-on-year. The absence of the base model iPhone 18 this year resulted in a lower channel distribution scale in the first month of new product launches compared to the previous year's iPhone 17 series. The iPhone 18 Pro series performed better than its predecessor in China and India.Xiaomi's shipments in the third quarter declined by over 30% year-on-year, with its market share dropping to 10%. Both OPPO and vivo saw their shipments decline by over 20% year-on-year, with shares falling to 9% and 8%, respectively. Counterpoint senior analyst Shilpi Jain stated that consumers are holding onto their existing devices for longer and are considering more refurbished devices. Counterpoint indicated that global smartphone shipments are unlikely to see a significant recovery before improvements in storage chip costs and supply.

IT Home cited a report from Money Today on October 8, stating that Samsung Electronics' Mobile Experience (MX) division plans to cut smartphone production, with a maximum reduction of 30% in the fourth quarter of 2026. Several IT industry insiders have indicated that Samsung's MX division has notified multiple partners to reduce product supply by 20% to 30%. IT Home noted that the original text did not specify whether this 30% is compared to the previous quarter, year-on-year, or against earlier expected production.In terms of production, Samsung Electronics originally planned to rely on new products like the Galaxy Z Fold8 to produce up to 270 million smartphones for the year. After the significant reduction in the fourth quarter, the final annual production is expected to drop to just over 200 million units, exceeding market expectations. IDC data shows that smartphone shipments in the first and second quarters of this year were 62.4 million and 62.7 million units, respectively, with previous forecasts predicting shipments of 59 million and 52 million units for the third and fourth quarters, indicating a decline of about 12% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter.Money Today reported that the rise in memory prices is the core driving factor behind the production cuts. TrendForce data shows that the price of 12GB low-power DRAM (LPDDR5X) for smartphones was $145 to $146 in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 175% compared to the same period last year. The report also stated that demand for artificial intelligence has driven up memory prices, with smartphone DRAM prices expected to rise by about 20% in the third quarter, reaching as high as $180. IT industry insiders stated that Samsung's current smartphone sales are no longer profitable, and the production cuts are a strategy to maintain overall profitability.

According to exclusive information from industry chain insiders, Lingyi iTech is the supplier for Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo. The company supplies Apple with core precision components related to the new generation of terminal products, including hinge precision structural parts, screen support plates, and ultra-thin heat distribution plates, with the unit value of supplied products being higher than that of traditional flat-screen devices.Recently, during an institutional research interview, Lingyi iTech stated that various foldable screen projects are progressing smoothly, and mass production ramp-up and customer delivery are being carried out as planned in the third and fourth quarters.

According to the latest data from Counterpoint Research, the Apple iPhone 17 is the best-selling smartphone globally in the second quarter of 2026, accounting for 6% of the total global smartphone shipments; the iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone 17 Pro rank second and third on the list. Apple and Samsung each occupy five positions in the global best-selling smartphone TOP10 list; the top ten models together account for 26% of the total global smartphone sales, an increase of 2% year-on-year. The base model iPhone 17 remains the best-selling smartphone this quarter, with significant upgrades narrowing the gap with the Pro models, supporting sales.Apple's stock price closed down 0.14% on Tuesday and fell 0.23% after hours, with a market capitalization currently reported at $4.52 trillion. For Samsung Electronics, two models from the Galaxy S series entered the top ten; the Galaxy S26 Ultra became Samsung's best-selling model this quarter, improving its ranking by 5 places compared to the previous generation, and it is also the best-selling Android model this quarter; this is the first time a super high-end Android device has led Android sales in the second quarter.

Counterpoint Research predicts that Samsung Electronics will regain its leading position in the smartphone market this year, indicating its stronger resilience against rising memory chip prices. Since the beginning of this year, the shortage of memory supply has become increasingly severe, and Counterpoint expects global smartphone shipments to decline by 14.3% by 2026. Samsung, with its highly integrated supply chain and mature distribution network, is an exception, with expected shipment growth of 0.8%, outperforming other manufacturers.Counterpoint states that the overall smartphone market is expected to decline again in 2027, followed by a recovery the next year. Similar to Samsung, Apple is expected to withstand the pressure from rising component prices, but the agency is more cautious about Apple's outlook. Apart from Samsung, only China's Huawei has established its own hardware supply system, which is expected to maintain significant growth.Counterpoint's chief analyst points out that the key to Samsung's return to the top lies in its internal component manufacturing capabilities, diverse product line, and solid relationships with carriers and retailers. It is expected that leading smartphone manufacturers in China will face greater shipment pressure, and the acceleration of industry consolidation during the economic downturn remains its fundamental forecast.

According to TechCrunch, insiders who have repeatedly disclosed Apple's hardware plans stated that OpenAI is collaborating with MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Luxshare Precision to develop a smartphone. The chips are co-designed by OpenAI with MediaTek and Qualcomm, while Luxshare Precision serves as the joint design and manufacturing partner.This phone may replace traditional applications with an AI agent that completes tasks by continuously understanding the user's context, combining small edge models and cloud models to handle different requests. Specifications and suppliers are expected to be finalized by the end of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027, with mass production expected to begin in 2028.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino revealed that the Tether AI team has released a new version of QVAC Fabric, which integrates the cross-platform BitNet LoRA framework, enabling the training and inference of billion-parameter large models on consumer-grade GPUs and smartphones.The new version of QVAC Fabric LLM has achieved cross-platform operation of BitNet LoRA fine-tuning and inference on AMD, Intel, Apple Metal, and mobile GPUs for the first time. On flagship devices, GPU inference speed is improved by 2 to 11 times compared to CPU, and memory usage is reduced by up to 90% compared to full precision models. The Tether team has completed fine-tuning of models with up to 3.8 billion parameters on flagship smartphones such as Pixel 9, S25, and iPhone 16, and has achieved fine-tuning of models with up to 13 billion parameters on the iPhone 16. The related code has been open-sourced to GitHub.

The Donjon research team at Ledger demonstrated that electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) can completely compromise a commonly used MediaTek smartphone chip, which is utilized in many Android phone models. The issue requires attackers to have physical access to the device, but it highlights the risks faced by users storing private keys on smartphones.Ledger stated that its team studied the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (MT6878) chip produced by TSMC. Researchers used EMFI tools to disrupt the chip's boot read-only memory (boot ROM), successfully bypassing core security checks and gaining full control of the chip, allowing it to run arbitrary code at the highest privilege level (EL3). Ledger emphasized that this finding does not affect Ledger hardware wallets.Ledger disclosed this vulnerability to MediaTek in May. MediaTek responded that EMFI attacks are beyond the security scope of the MT6878 chip, which is designed for consumer products rather than financial or hardware security module applications. Additionally, MediaTek stated that devices with higher security requirements, such as cryptographic hardware wallets, should include specialized defensive measures.At the time of the report's release, physical attack incidents targeting cryptocurrency users were on the rise.

ChainCatcher news, Web3 smartphone manufacturer Nothing announced the completion of a $200 million Series C funding round at a valuation of $1.3 billion. The company previously collaborated with Polygon to launch the blockchain phone Nothing Phone. This round of financing was led by Tiger Global, with other investors including existing backers such as GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF, and Tapestry.The new funding round brings Nothing's total financing to over $450 million. Founder Carl Pei stated, "This marks the beginning of a new chapter for us: from being the only emerging smartphone company in the past decade to building an AI-native platform that integrates software and hardware." The company plans to launch its first AI-native devices next year.

ChainCatcher news, Gaia today announced the launch of the Gaia AI phone, the world's first smartphone designed for complete AI autonomy.The device is based on the Galaxy S25 Edge hardware and runs complex AI inference locally through the company's proprietary Gaia AI platform. Each phone operates as a complete Gaia network node, contributing computing resources to a decentralized AI infrastructure while providing inference capabilities to other network participants, thus earning token rewards.The Gaia AI phone is now available for pre-order and will begin shipping at the end of 2025. Pricing starts at $1399, including exclusive partner benefits and network participation rewards.

ChainCatcher news, according to Forbes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently issued a warning, alerting smartphone users to a nationwide scam in which fraudsters impersonate FBI and other law enforcement personnel to trick victims into sending money.The scammers use "spoofing" technology to disguise their phone numbers as that of the FBI, falsely claiming that victims will be arrested unless they pay immediately. The FBI has made it clear that the agency will never ask the public to pay money over the phone to avoid criminal charges.This type of scam has become a global industry, with scammers using intimidation tactics to demand that victims pay via prepaid cards, wire transfers, cash mailed, or cryptocurrency ATMs. The FBI advises that if you receive such a call, you should hang up immediately and report it at IC3.gov.

ChainCatcher news, the on-chain gaming platform Crypto Gladiator League has announced the price of its Polygon-based smartphone CGLPhone: Super Edition: 15,000 CGL; Virtual Edition: 1,100 CGL/month. The first batch of 2,000 units is now available. According to Coingecko data, CGL is currently priced at $0.006306, which means the price of a single CGLPhone Super Edition could be just $94.59 based on this price.

ChainCatcher message, Oyster Labs announced on social media that the first round of pre-sales for its Web3 native smartphone Universal Phone, designed specifically for the Telegram ecosystem, has ended. User refunds are being processed, and fund settlement may take 5-10 days. After processing is complete, users will receive a refund confirmation email.

ChainCatcher news, according to BSCN, the second phone "Chapter 2" launched by Solana Mobile has surpassed 100,000 pre-orders, with sales exceeding 45 million dollars (at 450 dollars per unit). The company plans to officially release this phone in early 2025.

ChainCatcher news, CoinDesk cites sources as saying that Solana Mobile plans to launch a second smartphone, which will have the same basic features as its predecessor, Saga: a built-in crypto wallet, customized Android software, and a "dApp store" for crypto applications - but at a lower price and with different hardware specifications.