The AI revolution has gained new steam in early 2024, and it seems like everyone is trying to get in on the action. For smartphone developers, it’s an untraveled world of possibilities, and whoever develops AI to make annoying and tedious processes easier will gain a leg up out the starting gate. That idea has led to wild and wacky phones like theRabbit R1, which is an AI phone with zero apps, being unveiled to the world. Like it or not, this is the next software revolutionthat has brands going all-in, and it’s happening quickly. T-Mobile’s primary shareholder Deutsche Telekom recognizes this and plans to unveil a concept phone at MWC 2024.
What is the Rabbit R1? The AI phone without apps explained
And why is the internet going crazy for it?
Telekom, which is the majority shareholder of T-Mobile,announced that it will show off a concept phone during Mobile World Congressin Barcelona this February. Together with Qualcomm and Brain.ai, Telekom developed a phone with an app-free interface, running off a cloud-based AI. At the conference, the company will show off real-life use cases for the phone, such as booking hotel rooms and flight tickets. Additionally, Telekom will show off a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phone with on-board AI processing. The “Magenta” keynote will kick off on February 26 at 2:00 p.m. local time in Barcelona.
The carrier’s message is clear: This is its future. The Chief Product and Digital Officer for Telekom, Jon Abrahamson, said as much in the release:
“Artificial intelligence and Large Language Models (LLM) will soon be an integral part of mobile devices. We will use them to improve and simplify the lives of our customers. Our vision is a magenta concierge for an app-free smartphone. A real everyday companion that fulfills needs and simplifies digital life.”
We wrote in early January about the idea of AI being wholesale-integrated into smartphones. However, the question still remains:If AI is the future of smartphones, can you prove it?It’s proving to be difficult across the board, but anything that completely revolutionizes how we utilize universal products such as smartphoneswill be a lengthy process. Phones that don’t have any apps don’t fit into today’s ecosystem, butmaybe that’s the path we’re headed down. Sometimes, it’s just easier to flip on a light switch than ask Google to do it for us, though.
