Samsung’s AI-infused Galaxy S24 series set to invigorate Thai premium smartphone market

The latest AI-empowered Samsung Galaxy S24 series of smartphones, announced recently by Samsung Electronics Co, is set to stimulate the Thai premium smartphone market in the first quarter of this year. According to IT analysts, the launch of these new smartphones will lead to a rebound in Thailand’s local smartphone market by 2024.

The new Galaxy S24 series, which includes the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24, comes with a starting price of 33,900 baht for the Galaxy S24, 38,900 baht for the S24+ and 46,900 baht for the S24 Ultra. Samsung’s president and head of Mobile eXperience Business, TM Roh, described the Galaxy S24 series as a game-changer that will ignite the next decade of mobile innovation.

The Galaxy S24 series comes equipped with Live Translate, a feature that allows two-way, real-time voice and text translations of phone calls without the need for third-party apps, and an Interpreter feature that can translate live conversations instantly. Both features operate on the device’s AI, ensuring complete privacy.

Apirat Ratanavichit, a market analyst for client devices at IDC, expects the new AI features in Samsung’s Galaxy range to attract more interest in the premium smartphones category. He believes AI’s integration into these devices to enhance user experience will be a unique selling point in the Thai market.

Apirat also predicts increased AI capabilities as a significant factor in driving smartphone shipments in 2024 and beyond. He foresees a rise in AI smartphone momentum as the technology develops to deliver compelling use cases across multiple price points.

With the anticipated stimulus in demand in the first half of 2024 from the government’s Easy E-Receipt programme offering tax rebates on purchases up to 50,000 baht, Apirat expects a positive impact on the consumer devices market. He also anticipates a boost from the launch of new smartphones in the premium segment, as the high-end market in Thailand has shown resilience.

AI Features

Sheng Win Chow, an analyst at Canalys, echoed these sentiments. He highlighted the introduction of AI features on Samsung’s Galaxy S Series and the availability of more affordable 5G-enabled smartphones as strong selling points that will stimulate the local smartphone market this year.

However, Canalys’s global forecast suggests that AI-capable smartphones will constitute only 5% of total smartphone shipments in 2024, and it will take time for other smartphone vendors to integrate AI-capable hardware into their solutions. They predict that in 2022, 70% of on-device AI capabilities will remain untapped due to users’ lack of ability to utilise AI.

Despite the positive projections for 2024, Sheng Win revealed that the overall outlook for Thailand’s smartphone market in 2023 is expected to contract by 6%, dropping from 17 million units in 2022 due to challenging economic conditions, reported Bangkok Post.