Earlier this year, Meizu made a high-profile announcement to halt traditional smartphone projects and introduced its first "AI terminal" - the Meizu 21PRO. At the launch event, Meizu brought in Li Nan and Yang Yan, two "senior Meizu fans," to lead the audience into Meizu's exclusive AI world.
However, the performance of Meizu 21 PRO as an AI terminal did not quite satisfy Meizu fans, especially in terms of the actual implementation of AI functions, which seemed somewhat different from the promotion at the launch event. Just when people thought Meizu's "ALL IN AI strategy" might be coming to an end, its official account suddenly announced the arrival of three new AI products on May 6th.
(Source: Meizu)
Combining with previously leaked information, the highlight of this conference is Meizu's new mid-range model, the Meizu 21 NOTE, which marks the first time Meizu has used the "NOTE" suffix on a flagship model, generating high expectations. Additionally, Meizu has officially announced the arrival of Flyme AI, indicating that despite the upcoming release of a mid-range device, AI remains the core theme.
Since Meizu returned to the public eye, almost every product release has been met with controversy, especially after a complete shift towards AI, leading to changes in the brand's positioning and strategy, which has sparked numerous doubts. Whether Meizu can achieve a perfect comeback with this conference is what we are eagerly anticipating.
Flyme AI, serving up the promises
At the beginning of the year, Meizu raised expectations for the Meizu 21 PRO and the new Flyme at a conference, with slogans like "Open AI Terminal" and "Raspberry Pi of the AI Era" bombarding the market, heightening anticipation.
However, the reality seems more like Meizu painting a perfect picture for everyone. In this "picture," features like AI assistants, AI mini-programs, and open platforms mostly exist only on the conference's slides, rather than in the hands of users with the Meizu 21 PRO.
Flyme AI (New Flyme for New Generations) aims to materialize the promises made earlier in the year.
At the system's core, Meizu believes that most AI smartphones on the market merely offer a GPT-like tool on the phone, providing assistance to users through this application. Meizu aims to create a true "AIOS," enabling the phone to understand how to assist users in achieving functions. For instance, Meizu has mentioned an "AI assistant" that can replicate user behavior as an automation tool. When you repeatedly order the same dish from the same restaurant using the same app, Flyme AI can automatically help you complete a series of actions, truly freeing up your hands.
(Source: Meizu)
Understanding, analyzing, and learning the user's operational logic, and completing each step according to intent, is fundamentally supported by the large language model behind it. Meizu advocates opening this part to more third-party platforms. While it is said that many hands make light work, Meizu's current challenge lies in not yet achieving a breakthrough from "0" to "1," which is quite difficult.
In terms of applications, Meizu also considers the AI ecosystem, proposing the AI mini-program plan. AI mini-programs are essentially our familiar "intelligent agents," also known as Agents, acting as specialized small model tools to handle work requirements in different scenarios. Although the development difficulty of AI mini-programs is not high, limited by the installation volume of Flyme and the number of developers, the response to this plan seems not very enthusiastic after its public announcement.
(Source: Meizu)
Flyme AI can be said to be one of the most eye-catching "new products" from Meizu this year. Currently, the official has only announced one feature: Live Notifications. Live Notifications are dynamic notification reminders similar to iOS's Dynamic Island and Honor's Dynamic Capsule, which are popular features nowadays. Whether Flyme AI can implement the AI functions and plans announced earlier this year remains to be seen.
The Meizu 21 NOTE, unveiled at the same launch event with pre-installed Flyme AI, will be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform, featuring a 6.8-inch display and a white border version. In fact, the specifications of this model may not be too impressive for 2024. How Meizu will make the new Flyme AI play a bigger role on this mid-range model is perhaps what Meizu fans are concerned about.
Is Meizu really "ALL IN AI"?
Although Meizu is not the first smartphone manufacturer to propose an AI strategy, it is the most thorough in transitioning to the AI track among smartphone manufacturers. Starting from the Meizu 21 PRO, all its products will be endowed with "AI" features. However, market feedback suggests that Meizu's "ALL IN AI" strategy may have made more noise than impact.
As Meizu's first AI terminal, the Meizu 21 PRO itself performs at a mainstream flagship level, supported by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform in terms of performance, and equipped with features like mEngine motor and ultrasonic fingerprint. However, when classified as an "AI terminal," the performance of the Meizu 21 PRO is relatively average.
(Source: Meizu)
In terms of functionality, the Meizu 21 PRO currently only supports features such as AI assistant, AI screen recognition, and AI image processing. Initially, there were instances of the AI assistant providing incorrect answers, such as when a user asked the Aicy assistant, "How is the OnePlus 12?" and received the response "Equals 3," which was quite amusing. Although Meizu has since optimized these issues in subsequent updates, it has still left consumers with a negative impression.
(Source: Meizu)
Of course, whether it's AI enhancement, AI image enlargement, or AI assistants and other AI functions, they are not uncommon on most new smartphones today. Brands like Xiaomi, OPPO, and Huawei can all leverage their self-developed large models to provide similar AI features on their new devices. This has led to Meizu not being able to make a significant differentiation despite proclaiming the slogan "ALL IN AI".
However, Meizu has advantages that other brands do not have. For example, in the field of virtual reality or in-car systems, they can undergo the transformation from intelligence to AI under the driving force of Flyme. In the promotional animation of Flyme AI, Meizu seems to be preparing to enter the AI home appliance market with a 65-inch LED TV.
(Source: Meizu)
In the early stages of the AI mobile market, Meizu can be considered one of the most proactive players. However, the initial results did not meet everyone's expectations, possibly because Meizu's Flyme has always been a standout in custom systems. Fans naturally had high hopes for its foray into the AI field, leading to some discrepancies from what was anticipated. Market data shows that the initial sales of the Meizu 21 PRO were 2-3 times higher than its predecessor, the Meizu 20 PRO, and the former also secured the top spot in sales for the same period and price range, meeting expectations.
In the AI smartphone battle, can Meizu turn the tide?
According to the latest "Generative AI Smartphone Industry White Paper" by market research firm Counterpoint Research, AI smartphones are expected to explode in 2024, potentially surpassing 1 billion units by 2027, accounting for over 50% of annual shipments and becoming mainstream.
Perhaps sensing the shift in the smartphone market, most manufacturers have embraced the AI trend since 2023, introducing "AI smartphones." In this "AI smartphone battle," Meizu stands out as a unique contender.
Compared to other manufacturers, Meizu's mobile business was not particularly prominent before the return of the Meizu 20 to the market. Especially after several rounds of reshuffling, few mainstream manufacturers remained in the smartphone market, posing significant pressure on Meizu to pivot. During the launch event of the Meizu 21 PRO earlier this year, Li Nan openly stated that Meizu aims to be the "Raspberry Pi of the AI era," carving out its niche as a small brand in the era of large models.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Meizu's "AI Terminal" is more inclined towards platform-level AI, which means Meizu needs to continuously release hardware, improve software services, in order to attract more developers to join. This may explain why Meizu mentioned at the beginning of the year that some AI functions are still not open, as they are actually waiting for the arrival of the all-new Flyme AI.
The May event may be the most important event for Meizu after transitioning to "AI Terminal". In addition to the arrival of the first mid-range AI model Meizu 21 NOTE, there will also be other new products such as Flyme AI, AI TV, collectively building Meizu's AI ecosystem. By then, we can assess whether Meizu can turn the tide in this AI smartphone battle.
