Huawei to launch Mate 10 armed with new AI-enhanced chipset

Visitors are attracted by products at Huawei stand at the International Funkausstellung (IFA) 2017, the world's leading trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, in Berlin, Sep 2, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

Chinese telecom giant Huawei will launch Mate 10 smartphone powered by Kirin 970, a new chipset with built-in artificial-intelligence capabilities, unveiled at IFA, a consumer electronics show in Berlin on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Huawei's new chipset Kirin 970 is the world's first smartphone artificial intelligent (AI) computing platform with a dedicated Neural Network Processing Unit (NPU), said Yu Chengdong, CEO Of Huawei Consumer Business Group.

Kirin 970, uses 10nm leading process technology and brings together classic computing, graphics, image and digital signal processing power, which typically required separate chips and took up more spaces.

Mate 10, the smartphone powered by Kirin 970, which enables stronger image-recognition, will be launched on Oct 16 in Munich, Reuters reported, citing Yu.

The device will have improved camera and battery life. The power consumption of the new chipset will be reduced by 20 percent than its previous generation and the energy efficiency can be increased by 50 percent, ifeng.com reported Saturday.

Although Huawei is a famous smartphone business ranked third, behind Apple and Samsung in the world, it is lesser known as a maker of chips for its own phones, said Wall Street Journal. The newspaper added that the Mate 10 is set to compete against Apple for more profitable high-end phone market.

While Huawei's rivals are likely working on chip upgrades as well, "making AI computation faster and more efficient will give Huawei an edge, if it can demonstrate improved performance or battery life when conducting everyday tasks," said Tim Coulling, analyst at electronics-research firm Canalys as cited in Wall Street Journal.

Canalys'statistics show that Huawei had 10 percent of the global market in the first quarter, behind Samsung's 23 percent and Apple's 15 percent. The sales of Huawei remains low in the US, although it is a major player in Europe.

However, the market share of Huawei in Chinese smartphone market has growing steadily, recapturing the top spot from Chinese brand Oppo in the first quarter, while Apple is losing ground, according to Canalys.

In addition to Huawei, Xiaomi, another Chinese company with chip innovation ability, has poured more than 1 billion yuan ($0.15billion) into its chip business and launched its own in-house chipset Surge S1 in February.