Meizu is done making Android phones, says bye bye

Meizu, a Chinese consumer electronics company known for its smartphones, has announced that it will stop making Android phones and focus on artificial intelligence (AI) instead.

The company’s latest smartphone, the Meizu 21, launched in China in November 2023, could be its last one. This is not the first time Meizu has exited a business it was famous for. In 2007, it discontinued its MP3 players.

The news was first revealed by Li Nan, Meizu’s former marketing director, on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. Later, the company confirmed it with a video on its official website. In the video, Meizu’s CEO Ziyu Shen explained the reasons behind this decision. He said that the smartphone market has become saturated and competitive, and that people are keeping their phones for longer periods. He said the average time between phone upgrades is now 51 months, or more than four years.

He also mentioned that the market is very competitive and other companies offer similar features and quality in their phones. Hence, as a fresh ahead, now Meizu wants to go “All in on AI” and work on AI devices that can interact with other things. According to Li Nan, Meizu will adapt its Flyme OS, which is currently for smartphones, to create an operating system for AI devices. It will also develop a new mobile OS that will have more AI capabilities and enable phones to use AI.