An Alibaba Cloud insider said that the QwenBook team is developing QwenBook (Qianwen tablet). It is positioned as a native agent computer, focusing on office scenarios, and connects to the Qwen3.8-Max and Qwen3.8-Flash models. The product team has about 150 people, started around April this year, and is expected to be released by the end of this year or in early next year. The team has developed its own application system, including system-level audio recording and note-taking, Wiki, smart folders, a self-developed email service, and the knowledge base MyNote, among others. It is currently working closely with Kingsoft to integrate and connect WPS. The product’s approach is similar to that of Byte’s Doubao phone—both aim to move the model from standalone applications to a deeper, more system-level layer, but they face resistance from the application ecosystem. After Byte’s Doubao phone exploration, AI terminal devices are becoming a new industry trend.
Article author and source: iBlackma
News on September 22: The Yinwei team under Alibaba Cloud is developing an AI device called QwenBook, positioned as a native agent computer, but its product form is closer to a “Qianwen tablet.”
The product definition and hardware portions are developed in-house by the team. The previous system and end-to-cloud capabilities that Yinwei (Alibaba Cloud) accumulated through cloud computers have also been carried into this project.
An Alibaba Cloud person said that QwenBook is still an early-stage pilot product, mainly targeting office scenarios. The models currently connected include Qwen3.8-Max and Qwen3.8-Flash.
The product team currently has about 150 people. The system team is mainly reassembled based on Yinwei and Alibaba Cloud OS teams, while the hardware team has hired many people from leading smartphone manufacturers. QwenBook started around April this year, later than the launch of the first-generation Doubao phone.
Judging from the system-level capabilities currently on display, QwenBook first builds on a proprietary application suite. The team has developed a set of tools that it controls itself; users can use them directly, including system-level audio recording and note-taking, Wiki, smart folders, a self-developed email service, as well as the knowledge base MyNote and the memory management application MyZone.
It is understood that QwenBook is working closely with Kingsoft (WPS) DeepDepth, with plans to integrate and connect WPS. This is still in the development stage.
The advantage of this design is that Alibaba can connect context and the execution chain within its own applications first, without needing to wait for third-party developers to open interfaces one by one. However, the problem it creates is that if the Agent can only call tools developed by Alibaba itself, then QwenBook becomes even more like an Alibaba-customized office environment, and users can’t work within their existing software ecosystem.
The QwenBook team originally hoped to showcase a more complete product at the Yunqi Conference, but based on the current progress, the plan is to present a demo version. It is understood that this version only reveals some functions and is mainly used to convey the product理念 (product concept) behind the Qianwen tablet, rather than being the latest complete internal version. The full product is expected to be released by the end of this year or in early next year.
From an industry background perspective, Agents are changing the form factor of large model products. Once the model starts executing tasks on the user’s behalf, it not only needs to know what the user said, but also what the user is currently looking at, what information is available on the device, and which applications can be called.
But these context and execution permissions are scattered across the operating system, hardware, and different applications, and they are not under the model’s control. The Qianwen tablet’s approach is similar to the Doubao phone in that it hopes to move the model from a standalone application to a deeper, more system-level position.
Byte had previously explored in this direction through the Doubao phone, but encountered resistance from the application ecosystem earlier. After the first-generation Doubao phone launched at the end of last year, high-frequency apps such as WeChat, Taobao, and Meituan successively prohibited Doubao from replacing user operations through screen reading and simulated clicking.
On September 16, Nubia NaviX Ultra, equipped with the Doudou (Doubao) Phone Assistant consumer edition, was officially put on sale. The product retains the GUI route that recognizes the screen and simulates click operations in applications, and it also begins to try to expose application services directly to the Agent via MCP, A2A, or dedicated interfaces.