We all know that iPhones and Android phones are the biggest names in the world of smartphones. There are other smaller systems used by Chinese manufacturers, such as Huawei, who are getting their heads in the game. Now, a new competitor is coming to the battlefield. OpenAI, the company that has created the widely used ChatGPT and Dall-E, is planning to create a smartphone that will replace apps with AI agents.
Posting on X, Ming-Chi Kuo said that OpenAI is on its way to co-developing a smartphone with help from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Luxshare to create chips. Mass production is expected in 2028, while the specs and suppliers are to be finalised by late 2026 or early 2027.
Kuo, a reputable leaker and analyst at TF International Securities, says that the phone won’t have a chatbot icon. The idea is to kill apps entirely and replace them with an AI agent that handles tasks directly. This can be done only by OpenAI delivering a comprehensive AI agent service that will control both the operating system and hardware. The chip to be used would run a mix of on-device and cloud inference, with the phone tracking user context in real time. This will be a direct challenge to Apple and Google, whose pipeline and system access restrict some of their functions.
He suggests that OpenAI, by creating its own smartphone and hardware stack, would be able to use AI in all kinds of features without restrictions. A hardware product for daily use could also bode well for OpenAI’s ambition to reach a greater customer base.
Vibe coding app creation is something which is gaining ground in this age of AI development. Creators predict a future where apps will be replaced with vibe coding and prompting. This concept of OpenAI is also looked at by Carl Pei, the CEO of Nothing (phone manufacturer).
The smartphone would be designed to continuously understand users’ context. Algorithms will be based on the habits of users compared to the usage of apps. It is also said that the company will work on a mixture of small on-device models and cloud models to handle different types of requests and tasks.
Chris Lehane, Chief Global Affairs Officer of OpenAI, said that the company is on track to announce its first hardware product in the second half of 2026. At first, the company is expected to design earbuds. But it is the smartphone that is really anticipated among tech enthusiasts.
