Sailing Towards a New AI Era: Technology-Driven Innovation Remains the 'Optimal Solution' for Smartphone Development
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Recently, market research firm Counterpoint Research released the 2023 global premium smartphone sales rankings, showing that premium smartphones accounted for 24% of total sales, a 6% year-over-year increase, setting a new record once again. This stands in stark contrast to the predicted overall decline in the global smartphone market this year.
Over the past few years, the premium market has become a growth area within the sluggish smartphone industry. The premium segment has always been a key battleground for major players, with foreign manufacturers like Apple and Samsung once dominating the premium smartphone market, making it difficult for domestic brands to enter. However, with the rise of Chinese smartphone manufacturers during the 4G and 5G eras, the landscape of the premium market has gradually begun to change.
According to a report by third-party research firm IDC, in the first half of 2023, Apple, Huawei, and OPPO ranked as the top three in China's premium smartphone market (priced above $600). The data suggests that OPPO, alongside Huawei, is now directly competing with Apple in the premium market.
On January 8, OPPO officially launched the Find X7 series, once again bringing consumers a premium flagship product that sets new industry standards. As a flagship that comprehensively surpasses the Pro model, the Find X7 is OPPO's latest series integrating cutting-edge innovations in chips, AI, imaging, and more. It has garnered significant market attention upon release, with consumers seeing it as a viable alternative to Huawei in the premium flagship smartphone market. Exemplar of Benevolent Innovation:
From 'Technology Application' to 'Experience Enhancement'
Following the official launch of its self-trained large model—AndesGPT at ODC23, OPPO has now implemented the industry's first 7-billion-parameter large model for on-device application in the Find X7 series. Through model compression techniques such as high-precision 4-bit quantization, acceleration of the inference engine, and deep collaboration with chip platforms, OPPO has introduced a fully functional 7-billion-parameter large model to mobile devices for the first time, revolutionizing the way AI is used on smartphones.
Leveraging the new capabilities of this large model, the Find X7 features AIGC erasure functionality. It not only supports the recognition and segmentation of over 120 types of subjects but also achieves hair-level segmentation, separation of up to six multiple subjects, and the filling and natural generation of large-area images, expanding the scope and practicality of generative vision large models. Users simply need to swipe in the photo album to automatically identify objects to be removed from photos, with the system then filling in the details and textures realistically for the erased areas, ultimately turning a discarded photo into a satisfying image for the user. Not only that, the Find X7 series also brings next-generation AI experiences such as natural language understanding, text summarization, and call voice summarization. Compared to other models on the same platform, OPPO's AndesGPT, a 7-billion-parameter large language model, offers 20 times faster response for the first 200 words generated and 2.5 times faster speed for the first 2,000 words. Additionally, AndesGPT can handle up to 14,000 words for summarization, which is 3.5 times higher than other models on the same platform, making the conversational experience of the large model closer to human dialogue in terms of speed and capacity.
Whether it's the foldable OPPO Find N3 released last year or this year's OPPO Find X7, OPPO's recent high-end product lineup demonstrates that its technological upgrades are centered around enhancing product experience.
OPPO's Chief Product Officer, Liu Zuohu, stated: "Our biggest takeaway from developing flagship products over the years is staying committed to and clear about our direction. Many have asked about the progress of OPPO's large model implementation, and I've always said we'd wait until we have a real product to share. In fact, we started investing in these forward-looking technologies very early, such as showcasing 'text-to-image' at the 2022 OPPO INNO DAY. For us, the future will involve even greater investment in imaging, performance, and AI, focusing on delivering better product experiences."
In terms of imaging innovation, OPPO's approach prioritizes achieving the desired effects first, then determining the necessary algorithms and the most suitable components. In computational imaging, OPPO adopts a different design philosophy compared to other manufacturers. For example, Huawei follows a competitive imaging strategy, emphasizing extreme scenarios like "100x zoom" and "moon photography," which focus on ultra-distance, ultra-brightness, and high pixel counts. In contrast, OPPO's Hyperlens technology emphasizes image quality, color accuracy, and aesthetic style. As Hasselblad's flagship imaging device, the Find X7 series debuts a new-generation Hyperlight Image Engine, marking the first collaboration with MediaTek and Dolby to achieve Android full-focal-length Dolby Vision capture and display – a crucial milestone in the industry's advancement toward the HDR era.
The Find X7 Ultra Satellite Edition also incorporates OPPO's Satellite Antenna Beamforming Technology, delivering an innovative dual-mode satellite calling experience (handset/speakerphone) for next-gen flagships. This technology dynamically adjusts the satellite antenna's radiation pattern, ensuring the beam continuously aligns with the satellite to maintain connectivity during both calling modes. Traditional satellite phones use single-antenna designs that can't meet transmission power requirements in handset mode, limiting functionality to speakerphone only – which often causes communication issues in windy or harsh conditions. Through comprehensive upgrades in satellite communication, antenna systems, intelligent connectivity, and near-field communication technologies, users gain reliable communication capabilities across all scenarios, even in extreme environments.
This represents OPPO's first major breakthrough in satellite antenna technology for flagship products. While Huawei pioneered 0-to-1 progress in satellite communication, OPPO didn't merely follow suit but instead solved the 'last mile' challenges of satellite connectivity. In OPPO's view, the technological core in the coming years will still be product-driven. Liu Zuohuo said: "What products to develop will determine how large models should be trained and what kind of computing power to use. The overall strategy remains technology driven by products. And the most important approach to product development is through user insights, which in itself is a form of differentiated competition. Whoever understands users best and truly knows products will maintain differentiation in competition and always possess core competitiveness.
Strong R&D Capabilities
Ranked in Global Top 10 for Intellectual Property Patents for Four Consecutive Years
For technology companies, the rapidly growing high-end market is all about technological strength.
Addressing the increasingly stringent demands of flagship device users for chip energy efficiency, OPPO has also introduced its exclusive Tidal Architecture technology for the first time. As a chip-level software-hardware integration technology stack, Tidal Architecture establishes a comprehensive performance solution from scenario recognition and computing power demand to cache matching and computing power scheduling. It addresses the issues of memory-computation separation and chip scheduling faced by mobile platforms, enabling maximum energy efficiency performance for flagship chips. Currently, most mainstream domestic smartphone manufacturers primarily use chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek. However, the core competitive technology for each manufacturer lies in how to integrate large models, algorithms, GPUs, and NPUs for deployment and adaptation on the device side. Liu Zuohu stated, "OPPO has experience in chip development, so we know how to deploy them. This is why we were the first to successfully implement a 7B parameter large model on-device. Based on user insights, we customize chips according to large models and algorithms, and then communicate requirements to chip manufacturers in their language—this is our core competitiveness."
"The future direction is clear: AI will undoubtedly be the most important," Liu Zuohu emphasized during media interactions. He announced that OPPO recently consolidated all internal AI-related resources into a newly established AI Center, including personnel from software engineering, digital intelligence, and research institutes. "We've created a standalone AI Center. While we will continue investing in imaging and performance, AI is our top priority. We are pooling all resources to excel in AI as our core competitive advantage."
Whether it's AIGC or innovative technologies like satellite communication, these applications are the results of OPPO's years of technological accumulation. In key patent areas such as 5G, AI, imaging, and fast charging, OPPO has already built its own patent moat.
As of September 30, 2023, OPPO's global patent applications exceeded 95,000, with over 51,000 patents granted worldwide. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), OPPO ranked 6th globally in the 2022 PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) application rankings, second only to Huawei. This marks OPPO's fourth consecutive year in the global top ten. According to third-party statistics, OPPO has consistently ranked among the top two domestic smartphone manufacturers in terms of intellectual property patent filings for multiple years. In the 5G domain, OPPO holds the second-largest patent portfolio among Chinese smartphone makers after Huawei, having completed over 5,700 global patent application families and declared 2,900+ 5G standard patent families to ETSI. The recent verdict in OPPO's patent litigation case against Nokia marks a landmark ruling that could reshape the global communication patent landscape. OPPO aims to establish a sustainable intellectual property ecosystem through this case, driving industry-wide progress. These patent fortifications provide robust technical support for OPPO's premium market strategy.
For Chinese tech companies like Huawei and OPPO, patent volume and technological innovation capabilities not only reflect product competitiveness but also demonstrate core industry strengths. While OPPO emphasizes 'benefit-driven innovation'—contrasting with Huawei's 'competition-driven innovation' and 'far ahead' approach—both represent China's technological innovation power. Their patent breakthroughs are crucial for domestic tech enterprises expanding globally and strengthening their market positions.
Chinese Technology Goes Global
Over the past two years, major smartphone manufacturers have fiercely competed in the premium market. However, Apple maintains absolute dominance, while Huawei's strong comeback with its Kirin 9000S processor has intensified market competition. Liu Zuohuo stated: "Huawei's return is an unavoidable issue, but in reality, it's the same for every manufacturer. As long as the product is good enough, sales will be strong. Looking at market results from the past six months, the 4000-6000 RMB price segment has shown significant growth, with Apple likely being the most affected. In the future, each company will need to find its own differentiated advantages."
In a fiercely competitive environment, OPPO views competition as the norm. The brand, which has emerged through intense market battles, has never feared competition. Facing strong competitors, OPPO adheres to a simple belief: forget about competition and focus on making excellent products. Creating outstanding products is the sole reason for OPPO's existence and the key factor maintaining its position in the global top tier.
The market is the ultimate test. As one of China's few global smartphone brands, OPPO has achieved remarkable overseas performance. According to IDC data, in Q3 2023, OPPO surpassed Samsung in Southeast Asia's smartphone market with an 18.3% market share, claiming the top position. This follows its Q2 performance where it outperformed Samsung in Cambodia, Indonesia, and other markets, now achieving leadership across the entire regional market.
Data shows that while OPPO joins Huawei in challenging Apple in the Chinese market, it has also become the only domestic brand capable of competing with Samsung in overseas markets. Regarding the achievements in overseas sales, Liu Zuohu stated that OPPO began its globalization strategy when it entered the mobile phone industry in 2008. The primary reason for today's success is localization. "I once mentioned a concept that 'true internationalization is localization.' To enter a country, you must understand the needs of its people. We have done well in localization in regions like Southeast Asia and India, focusing on user insights, local services, and many other aspects, which are the most critical factors for overseas markets. In the past, internationalization often felt like foreign trade companies, but true internationalization requires deep roots in the local market—you must consider yourself a local company. This is the most important thing."
With the Find X7, OPPO has fired the "first shot" of 2024's flagship lineup, not only bringing consumers a new experience that refreshes previous flagship standards but also, more importantly, showcasing the need for more "tech innovation enterprises" beyond Huawei in China. These companies can set new benchmarks for China's technological prowess in the face of a complex global environment.