en.Wedoany.com Reported - On March 31, ZTE Corporation (000063) disclosed at its 2025 annual results briefing that the company is deepening cooperation with ecosystem partners, including ByteDance, to jointly advance the research, development, and launch of a new generation Doubao AI phone. The new generation Doubao AI phone is expected to be released in the mid-to-late second quarter of 2026. This marks an acceleration in the productization process of the Doubao AI phone following the joint launch of the Nubia M153 Doubao Phone Assistant Technical Preview version by the two parties last year. It also signifies that the cooperation between ZTE and ByteDance in the field of AI terminals has entered a new stage.

Last December, Nubia, a sub-brand of ZTE, and ByteDance's Doubao team jointly released the Nubia M153 Doubao Phone Assistant Technical Preview version, priced at 3,499 yuan. The Doubao AI assistant was deeply integrated into the phone's operating system, granting it system-level permissions, enabling it to understand and execute complex, cross-application instructions issued by users in natural language. For example, a user only needs to say "I'm hungry, order some food," and the phone can automatically call a food delivery app to complete the order; or, by instructing the phone to post photos from the album with captions to a social platform, the system can cross-call the album and social platform apps, automatically completing content generation and posting. ZTE Vice President Bai Gang described this experience as the phone's "autopilot," achieving a shift from "people operating the phone" to "AI helping you operate the phone." This engineering prototype sold out quickly after launch, becoming the first case in China of an AI phone with deeply integrated system-level large model capabilities, accumulating valuable user feedback and technical experience for the development of the new generation Doubao AI phone.

At that time, the Doubao team also stated that it had no plans to develop its own phone, choosing instead to collaborate with phone manufacturers in an "ecosystem partnership" model, deeply integrating the Doubao large model into the operating system rather than simply adding an application-layer plugin. ZTE provided underlying adaptation and hardware scheduling support for the Doubao Phone Assistant. Subsequently, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2026) in March 2026, the Nubia M153 made its overseas debut as the "industry's first truly AI Native phone," further validating the global market attention received by the Doubao AI phone product form. ZTE's explicit statement at the results briefing that it is advancing the R&D and launch of a new generation Doubao AI phone with ByteDance indicates that the cooperation between the two parties has progressed from a technical preview version towards mass production.

Furthermore, ZTE Chairman Fang Rong elaborated on the company's artificial intelligence strategy at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2026. She revealed that the company officially launched its self-developed agent platform "Co-Claw" (internal codename "Lobster") on the first working day after the Spring Festival, stating that "this year, we might release a 'Lobster' phone." She further pointed out that in the era of artificial intelligence, AI agent phones, including the Doubao phone, can enable people to do more things, rather than simply replacing human labor. From the perspective of ZTE's strategic layout, the Doubao AI phone and the self-developed "Lobster" phone will form a complementary product matrix. The former focuses on system-level AI experience leveraging ByteDance's Doubao large model capabilities, while the latter explores differentiated paths based on ZTE's self-developed agent platform.

It's not just ZTE. International giants like Google and Samsung also showcased similar AI phone concepts at MWC. Domestic manufacturers such as Huawei, Honor, vivo, and OPPO are all deeply integrating self-developed or partnered AI large model capabilities to upgrade their system-level intelligent assistants. The AI phone track has become a strategic high ground contested by major manufacturers. The deep cooperation between ZTE and ByteDance on the Doubao AI phone has pioneered an ecosystem collaboration model of "hardware manufacturer + large model company." Currently, the AI phone track is on the eve of an explosion. IDC data shows that shipments of new-generation AI phones in China are expected to reach 147 million units in 2026, accounting for 53% of total smartphone shipments, surpassing half for the first time, representing a year-on-year growth of 31.6%. In contrast, overall smartphone market shipments in the same period are expected to decline by 10.5% year-on-year, making AI phones the sole growth engine for the mobile phone industry. Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shows that global on-device large model deployments increased by 217% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, with AI phones becoming the core scenario for on-device large model implementation. Against the backdrop of slowing overall industry growth, the launch of the new generation Doubao AI phone is expected to leverage the system-level integration capabilities of the Doubao large model to provide consumers with differentiated intelligent experiences and inject new momentum into ZTE's competitiveness in the AI phone race.

This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com