The industry barriers built by traditional smartphone manufacturers through parameter stacking and supply chain competition are rapidly weakening under the impact of AI newcomers like Jieyue Xingchen and ByteDance. Over the next decade in the smartphone industry, the power is shifting from hardware controllers to intelligent agent operators. Whoever completes this transformation first will have the opportunity to redefine the market landscape.

Original article by AI New Tech Team, Xinshang

Since the rapid rise of AI, smartphones have rarely been the center of attention in the tech world. Even Apple's smartphone investments no longer carry the same momentum as before. The entire industry has gradually moved toward stability, with companies accustomed to making incremental improvements within existing frameworks.

However, China's smartphone industry has recently undergone subtle yet profound changes.

On one side, Jieyue Xingchen just released the world's first large model-native intelligent agent smartphone, the STEPX Neo. On the other side, ZTE Nubia announced plans to launch a mass-produced AI intelligent agent smartphone at WAIC, while Honor's Robot Phone is also poised for release.

▲Photo/Source: Internet

At first glance, this appears to be just another round of manufacturers hyping new concepts. But a deeper look at the players involved and their strategies reveals that the situation is far more complex.

Why Have Users Remained Unimpressed After Three Years of AI Smartphones?

As early as 2023, Qualcomm's CEO introduced the concept of AI smartphones. Mainstream manufacturers quickly followed suit, sparking a marketing frenzy.

Huawei, Vivo, OPPO, and Honor nearly all integrated self-developed AI intelligent agents. Their presentation slides grew increasingly ambitious, but user perceptions told a different story. The so-called AI experience amounted to cleaner removal of passersby in photos, faster voice-to-text transcription, and slightly more conversational voice assistants. Ultimately, it was just a more proactive voice assistant paired with a photo album that could automatically retouch images.

▲Photo/Source: Internet

In other words, most current AI smartphones simply superposition (overlaid) AI capabilities onto traditional operating systems. The OS remains unchanged, with apps operating independently, merely wrapped in an AI layer. Users still need to manually switch between apps and perform operations themselves for even slightly complex tasks.

Yin Qi, chairman of Jieyue Xingchen, offered a precise metaphor: 'Giving intelligent agents a door in an old system makes them permanent visitors. Building them a house makes them native inhabitants.'

For AI smartphones to escape the quagmire of concept hype, they must evolve from 'OS+AI' to 'AI-native OS.'

True Transformation Begins at the Operating System Level

The core innovation in this wave of intelligent agent smartphones starts precisely at the OS level.

Take Jieyue Xingchen's Step AOS as an example. Rather than adding AI features to a traditional OS, it reconstructs three layers of infrastructure—computing, data, and application services—breaking down hardware capabilities into four atomic units (communication, applications, files, and system) for intelligent agents to freely combine and utilize.

In practical use, the difference is striking. When a user issues a complex command like 'Plan a short trip this weekend—book train tickets, a hotel, and arrange a local specialty restaurant along the way,' Jieyue Amoo can automatically coordinate Ctrip, Didi, Meituan, and Alipay to complete the entire process at once. Users no longer need to open each app individually, repeatedly fill in information, or navigate between them.

Nubia has taken a different approach—partnering with ByteDance, with Nubia handling hardware and ByteDance managing software. The short-lived Doubao Phone, a product of their collaboration, exploded in popularity last year. This year at WAIC, Nubia will release multiple 'Doubao AI Intelligent Agent Smartphones.'

▲Photo/Source: Internet

Honor, meanwhile, introduced AgenticOS, declaring that terminals will evolve from 'application containers' to 'intelligent agent stages.'

These three paths may differ, but they converge at the same destination. In the second half of the AI smartphone era, the competition is no longer about cramming more AI features into existing systems but about reconstructing a new OS for intelligent agents at the foundational level.

From Blockade to Embrace: What Changed Behind the Scenes?

At the STEPX Neo launch event, Jieyue Xingchen's first batch of ecosystem partners included Alipay, Meituan, Gaode, Didi, JD.com, Baidu, Weibo, WPS, and others—covering nearly all major players in daily high-frequency applications.

▲Photo/Source: Internet

Yet just last year, after Doubao Phone briefly went viral, it faced collective blocking by major apps. Platforms cited protecting user privacy, but industry insiders knew the root cause: intelligent agents bypassed apps by simulating touches to directly invoke services, undermining platforms' control over traffic and their business models.

In just one year, attitudes have reversed. Internet giants now actively embrace intelligent agent smartphones, preferring to secure their position in new interaction paradigms rather than be circumvented.

Meanwhile, policy efforts are paving the way. In June, the State Administration for Market Regulation explicitly stated at a news conference on intelligent agent interconnection standardization that inconsistent interfaces and protocols among manufacturers have created 'intelligent agent islands,' severely hindering large-scale collaborative applications. The state is now promoting unified standards, meaning cross-app operations are moving from a gray area to compliance.

Three Major Challenges Remain Before the Landscape Solidifies

With policy support and internet giants pivoting, the future of intelligent agent smartphones seems bright. However, significant hurdles remain before true maturity.

First is security and privacy. High permissions mean high risks, especially when intelligent agents can operate across apps. Abuse of permissions or system attacks could have far more severe consequences than isolated data leaks. For sensitive areas like payments, manual confirmation will likely remain necessary for a long time. Jieyue's proposed four-dimensional security framework—'trustworthy, visible, controllable, reversible'—still awaits market validation.

Second is benefit distribution. The backlash against Doubao Phone last year stemmed from intelligent agents invoking services without app consent, directly challenging platforms' business models. While apps now voluntarily open permissions, questions about traffic accounting, commission splits, and user ownership remain unresolved. Cooperation may start with strategic intent, but sustainable operations depend on benefit mechanisms.

Additionally, the current core players in this intelligent agent smartphone race are far from mature. Jieyue Xingchen is just three years old, ByteDance has never independently made smartphones, and ZTE Nubia has long been relegated to 'others' in the traditional smartphone market. While they may excel in AI and systems, whether their product experiences can truly satisfy consumers remains an open question.

Of course, every terminal revolution has been led not by incumbents but by newcomers attacking from the margins. This judgment still holds today.

The intelligent agent smartphone race may appear to be about product innovation, but at its core, it represents a reallocation of industrial power. Whoever first defines the next-generation operating system will control the high ground of the AI terminal ecosystem.

Yin Qi predicts: Future intelligent agent smartphones may no longer be smartphones at all. This vision may still seem distant, but the direction is clear. Future phones will no longer be mere tools but user agents. Whoever completes this transformation first will have the opportunity to redraw the terminal industry's landscape in the next decade.

For traditional smartphone giants, the time they have left may be shorter than they imagine.

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