On-Device AI Phones Aren't a New Species, But Doubao and Stepway Are Taking Different Paths

Global shipments of AI smartphones are expected to exceed 170 million units in 2024, according to a recent IDC report, which revised the initial forecast upward by 30%. Meanwhile, on-device large model inference costs are dropping at a rate of about 20% per quarter—the AI computing power of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can already achieve inference speeds of 10 tokens per second for 7B models on phones. Behind these numbers lies a bet by both phone manufacturers and AI companies: putting large models in your pocket.