At the 2024 MWC Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Deutsche Telekom announced a major innovation plan - launching its first AI smartphone. This device will carry out in-depth cooperation with leading companies in the field of artificial intelligence, such as Perplexity and Picsart, and is expected to be officially launched on the market in 2026. According to official reports, the pricing of the AI phone will be controlled within US$1,000, and will be mainly aimed at the European market in the early stage, marking an important step for telecom operators in the field of artificial intelligence.
Claudia Nemat, a member of the board of directors and head of technology and innovation at Deutsche Telecom, said at the press conference: "We are transforming into an artificial intelligence company." She particularly emphasized that Deutsche Telecom's strategic focus is not to develop large language models, but to focus on creating AI agent technology and improving user experience through intelligent services. This strategic positioning reflects the new thinking of telecom operators in the era of artificial intelligence.
As the core partner of this cooperation, AI search engine company Perplexity is accelerating its business transformation. Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of the company, revealed that Perplexity's future development direction will break through the limitations of traditional search engines and evolve into a multi-function AI agent. The new generation of AI assistants can not only answer user questions, but will also have the ability to perform complex tasks, such as booking flights, sending emails, making phone calls and other proactive operations.
Currently, Perplexity's valuation has reached about $9 billion, and the Silicon Valley startup is actively expanding the mobile AI service market through strategic cooperation with telecom operators. It is worth noting that Perplexity has launched the Android version of AI Assistant in January 2024. This technology is likely to become the core technical support of Deutsche Telekom AI mobile phones, providing powerful intelligent interaction capabilities for devices.
For a long time, telecom operators have been facing dual pressure from Apple and Google in the smartphone market, and it is difficult to dominate the operating system and application ecosystem. Deutsche Telekom's cooperation with Perplexity is precisely the hope of reshaping user experience through artificial intelligence technology and enhancing the voice of telecom companies in the mobile market. This strategic move may open up new development paths for telecom operators.
Although Deutsche Telekom has not yet announced the specific hardware specifications and operating system details of the AI phone, judging from the published concept map, the device is likely to be deeply customized based on the Android system. It is reported that this AI phone will integrate advanced AI technologies from many technology companies such as Google Cloud, ElevenLabs, and Picsart, and is equipped with Magenta AI assistant independently developed by Deutsche Telekom, providing intelligent services to its global 300 million users.
Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition in the smartphone market and a solidified industry structure, whether the AI mobile phones jointly launched by Deutsche Telecom and Perplexity still need to be tested by the market. However, this innovative measure fully demonstrates that even traditional telecom operators are actively embracing the wave of artificial intelligence, trying to reshape the market structure through technological innovation and bring new intelligent experiences to users.