November 21, 2024

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Samsung Electronics President and mobile business chief Roh Tae-moon speaks at a press conference after the unpacked event of the Galaxy S24 series in San Jose, California on Jan. 17. (Yonhap)

Samsung Electronics's mobile business chief Roh Tae-moon has pinned high hopes on the latest flagship Galaxy S24 series to drive up the company's smartphone business this year overall.

Speaking to the employees in a regular town hall meeting on Wednesday, Roh reiterated the company's goal of creating an "ecosystem of Galaxy AI" to introduce the artificial intelligence model to all of its mobile devices, according to industry sources.

"Galaxy has led the way into the mobile AI era and has secured values that cannot be bought with money,” he was quoted as saying during the meeting.

In January, Samsung debuted its on-device AI, called Galaxy AI, for the Galaxy S24 series, touting the new phone as the world's first AI-powered smartphone. Preorders reached a record 1.21 million units in the first week of the launch.

In July, the smartphone maker also launched its new foldable phones -- Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 -- featuring Galaxy AI.

Backed with robust sales of the Galaxy S24 series, the mobile business division posted 33.53 trillion won ($24.3 billion) in sales in the January-March period, about half of Samsung's total sales in the first three months of this year.

Next year, the company will be introducing Galaxy AI to all of its mobile devices including the budget segment Galaxy A series, as well as tablet PCs, laptops and wearable devices, Roh said during the town hall meeting.

On Thursday, Samsung said it will add four more languages to Galaxy AI, including Turkish, Dutch, Swedish and Romanian by the end of this year. Currently, Galaxy AI supports 16 languages.

Samsung is speeding up efforts for the wider adoption of Galaxy AI in an apparent attempt to widen the gap with its archrival Apple, which has delayed the launch of its AI model, Apple Intelligence, to October.

As of September, about 20 million units of Samsung's 30 smartphone models feature Galaxy AI.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)