On November 6, 2025, at the iFLYTEK Global Developer Festival, Chairman Liu Qingfeng made a comparative demonstration:
Under conditions of high noise and long distance, the latest iPhone 17 Pro and the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book X5 were used for simultaneous recording and transcription. As the noise level increased from 30 decibels to 80 decibels, the transcription accuracy of the iPhone 17 Pro dropped from 94.23% to below 50%, ultimately ceasing transcription; meanwhile, the X5 demonstrated remarkable stability, maintaining a transcription accuracy of 95.08% even in the noisy environment of 80 decibels.
At the end of the test video, a low murmur arose in the audience. While everyone expected there to be a difference, no one anticipated that in a professional setting, the best performance achievable by a general-purpose smart device would still show such a significant gap compared to specialized AI hardware.
This seemingly random comparison reflects the structural differentiation that has already emerged in the AI hardware industry: According to IDC data, the global smartphone shipment growth rate in Q3 2025 was only 3.2%, marking a ten-year low; in contrast, AI hardware focused on vertical niche scenarios saw a market size growth of 13.4% year-on-year, reaching 1.102 trillion yuan, with consumer-grade AI hardware exceeding 400 billion yuan.
As general-purpose smart terminals encounter obvious innovation bottlenecks, the rapid growth of specialized AI hardware is driving a shift in the global technology power landscape.
From DJI capturing 80% of the global consumer drone market, to the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book leading top smartphones with its extreme specialized capabilities, to Huawei’s Ascend chips supporting half of the domestic large model computing power… Chinese companies are taking the lead in this wave of AI hardware explosion, becoming shapers of new rules. They are applying AI at a speed unimaginable in other parts of the world, fundamentally changing the future productivity landscape.
The market of “gaining an inch” and iFLYTEK’s third-generation products
Behind the innovation in the AI hardware industry lies a truth overlooked by most manufacturers: the market rewards companies that first perceive demand. The iFLYTEK Smart Office Book used for the comparative test is a very typical example.
In 2018, the backdrop of the era was still defined by the “e-reader” war initiated by Kindle. That year, Kindle’s annual sales in China first surpassed one million, reaching its peak reputation. An internal document from Amazon stated that by the end of 2017, China had become Kindle’s largest market, accounting for over 40% of its global sales.
Copycats flocked in; at that time, you could easily find no less than five brands making “e-paper books” in the consumer electronics section of any shopping website. Brands like iReader, Wenshi, Moan, Dami, Hanwang, and various other obscure brands that have long since disappeared were all trying to enter the e-ink terminal battlefield.
However, in 2018, iFLYTEK was conducting demo tests on a completely different e-ink device—the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book X1.
Before the X1 appeared, the core keyword for e-ink devices was “reading,” a market defined by Kindle, so brands were naturally divided into two camps: Kindle and “others.”
After the X1 appeared, the keyword for e-ink devices shifted from “reading” to “office,” a track pioneered by iFLYTEK, thus in the smart office book track, brands were naturally divided into two camps: iFLYTEK and “others.”
Just as there were no consumer drones before DJI, before iFLYTEK jumped out of the “reading” red sea to find the “recording” blue ocean, there was no category of e-ink office books on the market. This device, once jokingly referred to by early users as an “electronic stenographer,” sold over 120,000 units in its first year, with 73% of users being professionals such as lawyers, executives, and researchers. Even the e-ink office book track attracted attempts from terminal giants like Huawei and Xiaomi.
But the market is always about “gaining an inch.” When the demand for recording was met, users would inevitably not be satisfied with “what was recorded,” but would start pursuing “what the recorded content means.” Thus, iFLYTEK’s true advantage began to emerge.
In 2023, the emergence of ChatGPT ignited global enthusiasm for generative AI, also allowing all users to see the possibility of meeting their needs. However, the response from the vast majority of players in the industry was somewhat hasty. Many manufacturers chose to “just connect an API,” but due to insufficient hardware processing capabilities, delays often exceeded 5 seconds, and recognition rates were criticized by users as being akin to artificial stupidity, with performance even worse than the casual Q&A in mobile apps.
In contrast, iFLYTEK’s second-generation product demonstrated overwhelming AI invocation capabilities—it utilized its self-developed Spark large model but did not overreach; instead, it made a series of deep optimizations around the core scenario of “meetings.” It is a model of being well-resourced yet pragmatically low-key.
However, structured AI meeting minutes, excellent dialect and foreign language support, and intelligent AI speech draft expansion were still not enough for the ever-demanding users. The fact is, once you achieve 1, a flood of demands 23456 will collectively erupt.
You say I can invoke the cloud to use the large model, users say, what if I am on a plane? You say you can transcribe the content in advance, users say, it’s not about whether it’s done in advance, we have high confidentiality levels in our meetings, you can provide a connected model, but I dare not use it.
You say I can achieve 98% transcription accuracy in a conference room environment, and I can also locate the speaker by position, automatically identify who is speaking, and intelligently distinguish voices in a multi-person mode. Users say we don’t hold meetings in conference rooms, but in factories, on construction sites, what if it’s a bit noisy? What if there are too many interferences from multiple speakers?
Thus, in 2025, under the cultivation of two years of nationwide AI enthusiasm, the eternally “gaining an inch” users awaited the arrival of iFLYTEK’s third-generation Smart Office Book X5.
Opening up blue oceans in the red sea of the industry—iFLYTEK’s differentiated positioning and core capabilities
When iFLYTEK’s Smart Office Book completed its third product iteration in 2025, the entire e-ink screen industry was caught in a “silent internal competition.” According to the RUNTO report on the “Q1 2025 China Electronic Paper Tablet Market Analysis,” the total channel sales of electronic paper tablets in the Chinese market for that quarter were 417,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. Behind this seemingly stable growth is the intensification of homogenized competition in the industry—major brands are still fiercely competing on traditional parameters such as screen resolution and battery life.
However, amidst this red sea, iFLYTEK has shown a completely different growth curve in the smart office field. In the first half of 2025, revenue from iFLYTEK’s Smart Office Book, translation machine, recording pen, and dictionary pen in key markets such as China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States grew by 346% year-on-year. The number of users on the iFLYTEK Hearing SaaS platform surpassed 98 million, covering Hong Kong and Macau, and the international version product Deepting surpassed 1 million users in the EU and UK markets. The X5, as the latest flagship product, still topped the sales list of high-end office hardware priced over 4,000 yuan during the Double Eleven shopping festival.
Moreover, iFLYTEK’s most critical breakthrough lies in liberating the Smart Office Book from the category perception of “e-paper books” with its three generations of products, redefining it as “AI-powered high-end productivity tools.” This transformation has led to a complete reshaping of the value system, elevating competition.
Not to mention in the e-ink field, even when considering all smart terminals, various smartphones, computers, and tablets, it is difficult to find AI hardware products that can fully match the iFLYTEK X5.
All of this is predicated on iFLYTEK’s integrated hardware and software strategy, which has built a technical barrier that is difficult for others to replicate over the past decade.
Taking the X5 as an example, iFLYTEK pioneered the “4 up and 4 down ring microphone array,” a hardware layout configuration scheme with eight microphones that can only be adopted by professional devices like office books, and cannot currently be installed in general smart devices like smartphones. The sound source localization and adaptive noise reduction algorithms used by iFLYTEK are also optimized based on this hardware configuration.
In the face of such a professional solution that integrates hardware and software, even with deep reserves of voice recognition technology, it is difficult for the general-purpose smart hardware iPhone 17 Pro to surpass the transcription accuracy of the X5 under extreme conditions. The comparison test results with the iPhone 17 Pro at the beginning of the article ultimately reflect the ultimate embodiment of the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book team’s integrated hardware and software capabilities.
It is this capability that transforms AI from a “showy” toy into a truly knowledgeable “workplace advisor.” The core keyword driving all evolution is “understanding”—
understanding the environment, understanding the scenario, supporting historical data activation, understanding your past, and hoping to understand your future needs through your historical data.
This is why Liu Qingfeng set the theme of his speech at the iFLYTEK 1024 Global Developer Conference as “AI that understands you better.” Because only by understanding you better can it cooperate with you better, provide you with better tools, and achieve higher efficiency.
For example, iFLYTEK even designed a “one-click offline” physical network disconnection switch for the X5, because most executives need absolute certainty when discussing sensitive business matters—ensuring that data will not leak. The physical network disconnection design of the X5 provides this certainty, which cannot be matched by pure software solutions. iFLYTEK even added an indicator light on the physical switch to prevent any misoperation.
However, while ensuring data security, the daily high-intensity meetings and influx of information also make them urgently need AI assistance for processing. Therefore, the X5 is also equipped with an edge-side large model, ensuring that even under physical disconnection, it can still invoke local models for functions such as voice transcription and AI meeting minutes. The edge-side large model will also continuously self-train based on usage, becoming increasingly attuned to your needs.
Under such a product strategy, the role of the X5 gradually extends from work scenarios to become the core hub of personal knowledge management.
I have a user who has continuously used three generations of iFLYTEK Smart Office Books; she now stores all her meeting notes, reading notes, and inspiration fragments in the office book, and these data are analyzed by AI, almost becoming her second brain.
In this transformation, the development path of the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book may become an important reference for the entire industry—future competition will no longer be a comparison of parameters, but a contest of value creation capabilities.
More importantly, iFLYTEK’s success proves the possibility of Chinese companies achieving technological leadership in the AI hardware field. By combining a self-controllable technical architecture with a deep understanding of local user needs, Chinese companies are fully capable of occupying a leading position in the global AI hardware market.
From insights in China to validation globally—good products are a universal language
When the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book X5 topped the sales list of high-end office hardware priced over 4,000 yuan during the Double Eleven shopping festival in 2025, this achievement was not only a victory for the Chinese market but also heralded a global reconstruction of AI hardware value.
In the first three quarters of 2025, iFLYTEK’s C-end business revenue grew by nearly 40%, with overseas revenue increasing by 2.7 times year-on-year. Behind these numbers are engineers from Japan, oil companies from the Middle East, financial institutions from Southeast Asia, and even executives from multinational mining groups in Africa. The common ground in the global market is the high-end business crowd’s pursuit of efficiency and security.
Currently, the iFLYTEK AINOTE 2 has achieved 25 million yuan in crowdfunding sales globally, covering over 50 countries and regions, attracting more than 6,200 supporters, winning the Guinness World Record for “the world’s thinnest electronic ink tablet,” and strongly topping the three major international crowdfunding platforms: Kickstarter in the USA, Makuake in Japan, and Wadiz in South Korea, receiving unanimous recommendations from top global media such as USA TODAY and Tom’s Guide.
Localized innovations targeting various regions around the world have become a tool for iFLYTEK to further globalize. In the ASEAN market, iFLYTEK launched a multilingual large model base optimized for ten languages; in the Middle East, the device enhanced its recognition capabilities for Arabic dialects. This deep adaptation reflects iFLYTEK’s precise grasp of global scenarios.
It is these seemingly minor yet crucial optimizations that have allowed the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book to be viewed overseas not just as a tool, but as an “intelligent partner that understands local business.” The success in the global market, in turn, validates the universality of the Chinese AI hardware innovation model. It proves not only the excellence of a single product but also a victory of an industrial logic: true innovation is not about stacking parameters, but about deeply responding to the real needs of global users.
When we shift our gaze from the seven-year journey of the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book to the entire Chinese AI hardware field, we find a similar path being repeated across different tracks: DJI occupies over 80% of the global consumer drone market, starting from the niche demand of professional model enthusiasts; Huawei’s absolute leadership in communication equipment began with a deep dive into the “thankless” scenario of network coverage in remote areas.
The success of the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book began with a seemingly niche “office demand” and has ventured into the vast sea of AI hardware.
In the field of AI hardware, Chinese companies are transforming from technology followers to co-creators of rules. The success of all companies combined forms a uniquely Chinese innovation paradigm—in the cracks of extreme internal competition and external pressure, honing the deepest insights into demand and the most extreme responsiveness.
This paradigm can be summarized in a three-part “value innovation” trilogy:
First, reconstructing the track from “red ocean” to “blue ocean.” The most unique ability of Chinese manufacturers lies in their ability to open up new blue oceans in a recognized red ocean by keenly perceiving users’ “unspoken pains.” iFLYTEK did not engage in a bloody battle with Kindle in the “e-paper book” bloodbath but redefined the “smart office book”; just as DJI did not continue to improve remote-controlled airplanes but created “flying cameras.” The core behind this is not about not competing with others, but about doing what others cannot.
Second, building asymmetric competitiveness through “integrated hardware and software.” When pure software or pure hardware innovations are easily replicated, leading Chinese manufacturers have chosen the most challenging yet stable path: integrated hardware and software. iFLYTEK self-developed the Spark large model and deeply coupled it with microphone arrays and chips; Huawei optimized the entire chain from communication protocols to Kirin chips to HarmonyOS. This model, which deeply integrates hardware, software, algorithms, and ecosystems, creates an experience barrier of 1+1>10, making it difficult for competitors to disrupt through a single technological advantage. This is no longer a parameter competition but an elevation of systemic capabilities.
Third, forging “localized insights” into a “globalization tool.” The complexity and diversity of the Chinese market provide the most demanding training ground for AI hardware. A product that can simultaneously meet the foreign meeting needs of financial elites in first-tier cities, transcribe in noisy environments in manufacturing factories, and understand dialects in local government meetings inherently possesses the foundational capability to conquer global markets. The success of the iFLYTEK Smart Office Book’s overseas expansion essentially replicates the success validated in the Chinese market to the global market, with targeted localized adjustments.
Looking back at the significance of the comparison test with the iPhone at the beginning of the article, it has long transcended the victory or defeat of a single product. It seems to hint at the shift in the global technology industry power structure:
In the field of AI foundational hardware, we have Huawei; in general smart mobile terminals, we have Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo; in the automotive sector, we have BYD, Changan, Chery, and the blooming of companies like NIO and Li Auto; and in the consumer-grade vertical AI hardware track, we have iFLYTEK’s Smart Office Book, translation machines, learning machines, as well as smart rice cookers, robotic vacuum cleaners, smart refrigerators, hotel delivery robots, and countless other smart hardware manufacturers.
From ENIAC to iPhone, major hardware innovations over the past 80 years have been predominantly led by Europe and the United States.
But the AI-driven paradigm revolution is rewriting the historical script.
When Liu Qingfeng raised the world’s thinnest electronic ink tablet X5, it seemed he was holding not just a product, but a key to opening the door to a new world.
