In the landscape of conversational artificial intelligence on smartphones, Gemini already has a significant head start. Google's AI assistant replaces the aging Assistant in the Android universe, taking advantage of the American giant's position to dominate the sector. We can see that Google is winning the AI assistant war, but a new major player could soon emerge. Perplexity AI, a promising startup that rivals Google and OpenAI, is stepping up its efforts to bring its virtual assistant to users' smartphones.
Agreement with Motorola while waiting for Samsung
According to information reported by Bloomberg, the firm has already reached an agreement with Motorola to integrate the Perplexity assistant on the brand's future smartphones. Although the full details are not known, it is expected that Perplexity will be pre-installed on certain models from the Lenovo subsidiary. The assistant's presence would offer a direct alternative to Gemini, and Motorola is reportedly preparing a tailored user interface and a marketing campaign to encourage users to discover Perplexity. The partnership could be formalized as early as April 24, the date Motorola is expected to unveil its new products. A new generation of foldable smartphones is expected with the Razr 60 and Razr 60 Ultra.
While the Lenovo subsidiary seems to have a head start, Perplexity could make a big splash by signing a similar agreement with Samsung. The situation with the South Korean giant is less clear, but discussions are underway and several options exist. The assistant could benefit from increased promotion within the Galaxy Store or be offered as the default AI assistant.
These negotiations are complicated, however, by the very close relationship between Samsung and Google. Gemini already powers a large part of the Galaxy AI features on the Korean manufacturer's devices. Additionally, Google is the default search engine for Galaxy devices in many regions. However, the brand's interest in Perplexity is real, and Samsung's investment arm, called NEXT, already backed the startup last year. It's even rumored that it's considering participating in a future Perplexity funding round.
But what is Perplexity anyway?
Less well-known than ChatGPT or Gemini, Perplexity is one of the most promising AI services of the moment. The tool combines an intelligent search engine and a chatbot, allowing it to stand out and be presented as an outsider to watch against Google. Another strength of Perplexity AI is that it relies on several cutting-edge AI models, with a free version and a paid version.
The free version of Perplexity provides access to a standard model optimized for speed and web search, as well as a limited number of “Pro” searches per day, which give access to advanced models such as GPT-4o (OpenAI) or Claude 3.5 Sonnet (Anthropic). A paid version, Perplexity Pro ($20/month), exists and provides unlimited access to the most powerful models: GPT-4o (OpenAI), Claude 3.5 Sonnet (Anthropic), Sonar Large (based on Llama 3.1 from Meta), Grok-2 (xAI) or even Gemini 2.0 Flash (Google) for certain uses.
A strategic challenge facing Google Gemini
For Perplexity AI, securing a place on devices from such large manufacturers is a major strategic challenge. Faced with Google Gemini's dominance of the Android ecosystem, these partnerships represent a unique opportunity to gain visibility, strengthen its brand and significantly expand its user base, particularly in key markets such as the United States.
While Perplexity won't immediately replace Google Gemini as the default assistant on all devices (especially since Android offers the flexibility to change the default assistant), its pre-installation on Motorola and its potential deep integration with Samsung could shake things up. For consumers, this increased competition could mean more choice and innovation in how they interact with AI on their smartphones every day.
These developments are a continuation of Perplexity's expansion, which has already signed a deal with Deutsche Telekom in Europe to develop a phone based on its AI. Perplexity's arrival on smartphones via Motorola and potentially Samsung marks a significant step in the battle for mobile AI dominance.
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