The Future of Smart Devices is Moving Beyond Smartphones
HONOR GCC CEO Debo Zhang discusses the company’s AI ambitions, Saudi Arabia’s growing importance, the rise of agentic AI and why hardware will be just as critical as software in the next phase of the AI revolution
What are you showcasing at LEAP 2026 that is genuinely new, and what problem does it solve for customers?
At LEAP, we are showcasing HONOR’s next chapter as a leading global AI device ecosystem company, brought to life through our ALPHA PLAN: From Vision to Reality. The world’s first HONOR Robot Phone is the centrepiece and a key proof point of this transformation. Combining AI, robotics and cinematic imaging, with an integrated robotic gimbal, it demonstrates how devices can evolve from simply responding to commands to understanding context, moving, responding and assisting users.
Our collaboration with ARRI, a legend in professional cinema with more than 100 years of expertise, adds another important dimension — bringing cinematic imaging and professional filmmaking expertise closer to everyday consumers. It reflects our belief that the future of content creation is video.
Beyond Robot Phone, visitors can experience HONOR’s expanding ecosystem across smartphones, PCs, tablets, wearables and other connected devices, through real-life and interactive scenarios. Together, these experiences reflect the new HONOR brand direction: moving beyond individual devices to create intelligent, connected and human-centric experiences. And Saudi Arabia is a key market for bringing this vision to life, given the Kingdom’s strong focus on AI, innovation and digital transformation.
Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in AI and digital transformation. What are you seeing from Saudi customers that differs from demand in other markets, and how is this influencing your product strategy?
GCC customers stand out for their rapid adoption of cutting-edge technology and their strong alignment with ambitious national digital transformation agendas across the region. Unlike traditional markets where consumer tech adoption happens incrementally, users across the GCC leapfrog basic technological phases, demanding hyper-connected, intelligent devices that deliver immediate productivity and lifestyle utility. They seek sophisticated AI capabilities that integrate naturally into daily routines without compromising data privacy or device performance.
This discerning regional demand directly shapes our product strategy, driving us to introduce our most ambitious innovations across GCC markets first. Major regional platforms like LEAP 2026 in Riyadh allow us to unveil our “Alpha Plan: From Vision to Reality” alongside the world’s first Robot Phone and our expanding AI device ecosystem for the entire region. By prioritizing agentic AI and ensuring seamless connectivity across smartphones, AI PCs, tablets, and wearables in real-life scenarios, our product lineup directly supports the ambitious digital lifestyle of GCC consumers.
What is the biggest technology challenge your customers in the Middle East are asking you to solve right now?
The primary challenge our Middle East customers ask us to solve is bridging the gap between fragmented digital ecosystems while maintaining absolute hardware reliability in harsh regional climates. Consumers frequently feel restricted by closed walled gardens, facing friction when sharing files or syncing workflows across different operating systems. At the same time, regional environmental factors like extreme summer heat and dust accelerate hardware wear, draining batteries and throttling performance when users need seamless connectivity most.
At HONOR, we solve this dual challenge through our open AI ecosystem strategy and our core ABCD engineering framework—focusing on AI, Battery, Camera, and Durability. By enabling smooth cross-platform compatibility with iOS, Mac, and Windows setups, we remove ecosystem barriers so users can collaborate freely. Simultaneously, we engineer physical resilience into every device through long-lasting silicon-carbon batteries, thermal stability, and military-grade drop and water resistance, ensuring our connected ecosystem operates reliably anywhere across the region.
LEAP brings together global technology companies, startups, investors and government organisations. What partnership or ecosystem opportunities are you looking for at the event that could accelerate your growth in Saudi Arabia or the wider region?
As a premier global hub for technology and digital innovation, LEAP 2026 provides an ideal platform to build strategic alliances that accelerate our growth. Under our event theme, “Alpha Plan: From Vision to Reality,” we are actively seeking open, value-sharing collaborations with telecom operators, enterprise leaders, software developers, and government entities. Our objective is to co-create an integrated agentic AI ecosystem that breaks open industrial boundaries and expands local technological capabilities across Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC.
During the event, we are showcasing how intelligent devices work together across practical, real-life scenarios. Beyond presenting pioneering innovations like the world’s first Robot Phone, we are focused on establishing strategic retail, distribution, and enterprise B2B partnerships. These agreements will expand our local retail footprint, strengthen customer service infrastructure, and bring human-centric AI experiences closer to families and businesses.
How important is Saudi Arabia to your regional growth strategy, and are you using the Kingdom as a launchpad for expansion across the wider GCC, Middle East and Africa?
Each regional market serves as a key anchor point of HONOR’s regional growth strategy for our expansion across the GCC, Middle East, and Africa. As the region’s second-largest smartphone brand, our momentum relies on being deeply integrated into the Kingdom’s dynamic technology landscape.
Additionally, this region has a strong forward-looking digital agenda that makes it the ideal market to debut next-generation hardware, evaluate consumer adoption, and establish benchmark standards for regional deployments. Our growth in the region is unprecedented, growing 35% in H1 of 2026, while the industry was in a decline of 13%. We saw a YoY growth of 73% in Q1 alone, which is also facilitated by going beyond smartphones alone.
We utilize the Kingdom alongside our established GCC footprint as a strategic proving ground for our most ambitious initiatives, including launching our “Alpha Plan” and showcasing the world’s first Robot Phone at LEAP in Riyadh. By building a robust regional foundation—supported by dedicated service infrastructure, retail expansion, and strong distribution networks—we create a highly scalable operational blueprint. This model directly accelerates our expansion across surrounding GCC markets and into broader African territories, driving sustained long-term growth throughout the MEA region.
Looking ahead three years, which technology do you believe will have the biggest impact on your customers in the Middle East, and what are businesses still underestimating today?
Over the next three years, on-device agentic AI combined with embodied physical AI will have the most transformative impact on consumers across the Middle East. We are transitioning from reactive search tools into an era where intelligent devices actively understand context, anticipate user requirements, and automate complex tasks across connected smartphones, tablets, wearables, and robotic form factors. This evolution will fundamentally redefine human-to-device interactions, making personal technology a proactive partner in daily productivity and lifestyle scenarios.
What many businesses still underestimate today is that advanced AI software requires an equally uncompromised hardware foundation. Cloud-reliant AI introduces latency and privacy risks, while heavy AI workloads place intense demands on device hardware. Winning in the AI era requires a robust physical foundation: high-density silicon-carbon batteries to handle continuous processing, thermal stability built for GCC climates, hardware-level privacy protection, and open cross-platform compatibility that unifies all user devices seamlessly.
