South Korean technology company Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S24 series, with enhanced artificial intelligence capacity on Thursday, as the company aims to widen its stake in the highly competitive premium smartphone market.

The handsets come with a bunch of new AI features, such as providing two-way, real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within the native app, helping perfect conversational tones to ensure communication sounds as it was intended, as well as automatically summarizing incoming messages and suggesting relevant replies.

"The Galaxy S24 series transforms our connection with the world and ignites the next decade of mobile innovation," said TM Roh, president and head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones."

According to a report from global consultancy International Data Corp, global smartphone shipments declined 3.2 percent year-on-year to 1.17 billion units in 2023. The fourth quarter saw 8.5 percent year-on-year growth and 326.1 million shipments, higher than the forecast of 7.3 percent growth.

Apple grabbed the top spot in the global smartphone market in 2023 for the first time, accounting for 20.1 percent market share with 234.6 million shipments, while Samsung came second with shipments of 226.6 million and a 19.4 percent market share, said IDC.

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