Survey shows that longer battery life and improved camera features are priorities for people.
A quarter of smartphone owners (25%) do not find AI features useful, 45% do not want to pay a monthly subscription fee for AI capabilities, and 34% are concerned about privacy issues. CNET writes about this.
As smartphone makers like Apple, Google, and Samsung increasingly focus on AI features in their latest devices, a CNET survey found that only 18% say AI integration is their primary motivator when upgrading their phone.
The top reasons for buying a new device, according to respondents, are longer battery life (61%), more storage (46%), and improved camera features (38%).
This comes as Apple releases its latest batch of Apple Intelligence features with iOS 18.2, including ChatGPT integration for Siri, the ability to create your own emoji with Genmoji, and a text-to-image tool called Image Playground.
The iPhone maker debuted the first set of AI-powered features AI in October, featuring a smarter Siri, AI-powered writing tools, and photo editing. Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro models and the iPhone 16 series (as well as iPad and Mac models with the M1 chip and later).
iPhone 16 owners also get access to Visual Intelligence, a visual search tool that can help identify objects and places around and output any relevant information. Google also made heavy use of AI when it unveiled the Pixel 9 series in August, devoting much of its keynote to discussing new Gemini features like Live, which lets you have a natural dialogue with a virtual assistant. At its Unpacked event in July, Samsung also touted Galaxy AI, which can simplify tasks like translating messages and editing photos.
These new features rely on generative AI to generate text or images or to improve digital assistants, and AI itself has been built into smartphones for years. For example, a phone’s camera uses AI to process images and blur the background in portrait mode, and Siri and Google Assistant have always been based on AI (albeit using less advanced versions of the technology). Because this new wave of AI introduces ways to more explicitly do things on your phone rather than fitting into existing features, it may take people some time to get used to it.
AI can be expensive
As tech giants continue to roll out these AI features, consumers may soon have to pay a price if they want to keep using them. Samsung's website says that Galaxy AI features “will be available for free through the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices.” To use the full power of Gemini in Google apps, you'll need to subscribe to Gemini Advanced. It's possible that Apple could also charge for some of its AI-powered iPhone features someday.
Nearly half of smartphone owners say they're not willing to pay extra to access AI on their phones. That's not surprising, considering how much subscription fatigue is already weighing on people. Another CNET survey in April found that U.S. adults spend an average of $91 on subscription services each month. Two-thirds of respondents said at least one of their subscriptions had increased in price in the past year. Adding another monthly fee may not be as appealing.
Privacy remains a key concern when it comes to AI, with a third (34%) of smartphone owners reporting concerns about it. Tech giants are increasingly focusing on privacy issues during their AI talks. For example, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple noted that many of its AI models run on a device, which is typically considered more private because information is not supposed to be transmitted over the internet. When a task requires more processing power, the relevant data will be sent to Apple Silicon servers, and that data will not be stored or shared with Apple, the company said.
Top reasons to upgrade your smartphone
While AI is one of the last reasons consumers want to upgrade their smartphones, other considerations like longer battery life, more memory, and better camera features still dominate. Other motivators include the phone's display and screen size (32%); staying on the same ecosystem, such as iOS or Android (24%); and phone color (10%).
Due to the high cost of devices (many flagship phones will cost somewhere between $800 and $1,200), consumers may not want to upgrade their devices as often. According to the survey, 44% say they only buy a new device when their current phone breaks or needs to be replaced. Additionally, 30% have been using their devices for three years or longer, while 18% upgrade their devices every two years, and only 8% buy a new phone every year.