At 1am Beijing time on September 10th, Apple will hold a special event with the theme of "Highlight Moment". At that time, the company will launch its latest iPhone and lay the foundation for a new artificial intelligence platform.
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According to a report by The Paper on the 9th, as in previous years, Apple will launch four new iPhone models: iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max. In addition, Apple has also prepared significant updates for the Apple Watch and AirPods.
A set of artificial intelligence tools, including the updated Siri digital assistant, Apple Intelligence, will also be the highlight. Renowned technology journalist Mark Gurman stated in his latest column that the theme of this event, "Highlight Moment," is a hint at Siri's new interface.
However, according to a report by Caixin on the 9th, Gurman stated that in recent days, Apple has decided to postpone the launch of some key features of Apple Intelligence. Gurman bluntly stated that the long-awaited "super cycle" triggered by the iPhone 16 will not come.
Currently, the first batch of Apple Intelligence features will be available starting from iOS 18.1. It can be confirmed that iOS 18.1 will not be released together with the iPhone, but will only be released to the public in October. The first batch of features provided includes new writing tools for generating and summarizing text, suggestion replies in iMessage, automatic phone transcription, and cleaning functions in the "Photos" app. However, Gurman stated that even these basic functions may not necessarily be open in China and the EU region.
Overall, the advancement of Apple Intelligence to a 'complete entity' will be a slow and staggered process.
The 'photo button' or the biggest design highlight
According to a report by The Paper, Gulman revealed that both Pro models will feature a dedicated capacitive "Capture Button" on the right side of the phone for taking photos and videos. Gurman praised it as "the biggest selling point of the new iPhone besides artificial intelligence". Some foreign media also refer to it as the "biggest selling point" because consumers may prefer practical camera functions over AI that is not yet needed.
The working mode of this sensing button is similar to the shutter button on a digital SLR camera. When the user lightly presses it, focusing can be achieved, and pressing it hard can take photos. By sliding, you can also switch between photo and video modes, and zoom in and out.
The new generation of non Pro models will also be equipped with an Action Button. On the previous generation models, only the Pro version and two models were equipped with an Action Button. This button, combined with custom settings and shortcut commands, can be used for taking screenshots, enabling conversation translation, and more.
According to Caixin News Agency, Gurman pointed out that Apple's strategy is because the AI function itself is not attractive enough to encourage consumers to upgrade their models. On the contrary, Apple needs to promote the changes in the phone itself, including the new photo shooting button and customizable operation buttons.
At present, many analysts expect that the iPhone 16 series equipped with Apple Intelligence features will trigger a wave of replacement craze. However, Gulman believes that this craze is more likely to be driven by the release of the iPhone 17 next year, when AI functions will present a relatively more complete version and the new models may also have a brand new appearance.
According to the Daily Economic News on August 31st, Daniel Ives, Managing Director and Senior Stock Analyst of investment bank Wedbush, said, "We believe that this (new product launch) will open the largest upgrade cycle in Apple's history. Our recent research on the Asian market has given us more confidence, and this upgrade cycle will bring long-awaited growth to Apple next year. We now believe that the initial shipment volume of iPhone 16 will exceed 90 million units, far higher than Wall Street's initial expectation of 80 million to 84 million units
Ives further predicts, "We believe that there are approximately 300 million iPhones worldwide that have not been upgraded in the past four years. As the AI driven iPhone replacement cycle begins, Apple's iPhone sales in fiscal year 2025 may exceed 240 million. We believe that Apple and its iOS ecosystem are the only key to unlocking 2.2 billion iOS devices and 1.5 billion iPhones worldwide. This could bring Apple $10 billion in high interest incremental service growth annually, and also mark the beginning of a multi pronged AI revenue stream driven by hardware and software
This article combines news from The Paper, Caixin, and Mainichi Economic News