In an effort to increase sales of its renowned product, Apple is anticipated to unveil its most recent lineup of iPhones on Monday. These phones will include generative AI capabilities.
The Steve Jobs-founded company hasn’t revealed much about what it intends to showcase during its “Glowtime” launch event, which will take place at its Cupertino, California, headquarters.
Nonetheless, this is the season when Apple usually refreshes its range of iPhone models.
With so much riding on the potential iPhone 16, Apple is hoping that new AI capabilities would draw consumers in and encourage them to purchase the newest models.
The iPhone, which generated $39 billion in sales in the most recent quarter, accounts for almost 60% of Apple’s total income and continues to be the primary gateway to the company’s services, which are starting to take off and include the App Store and Apple TV.
Apple is only now emerging from a protracted sales downturn as customers continue to hold onto older models for longer.
According to Dipanjan Chatterjee, principal analyst at Forrester, “the iPhone 16 will be one of the most significant iPhone introductions, not because of what’s on the outside but because of what’s inside, namely Apple Intelligence.”
In addition to a relationship with OpenAI, the firm that makes ChatGPT, introduced “Apple Intelligence,” a new set of software features for all devices, during its annual developers conference in June.
These include AI-enhanced image editing, translation, and subtle artistic additions to messages in the near term, but not the more far-reaching innovations that OpenAI and Google have promised.
“Superb Siri”
In addition, Apple announced that Siri, its AI-enabled digital assistant, will now show up as a pulsating light on the edge of a home screen.
Regarding Monday’s event, Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said that “Siri will be a big part of the conversation.”
Since its launch more than a decade ago, GPT-4o, the newest assistant from OpenAI, and other newer models have eclipsed the once-ubiquitous Siri.
Analysts following Apple anticipate the company will release iPhone 16 versions with unique CPUs to support certain AI functions, such as the enhanced Siri.
Apple hopes to “shake that expectation” that new iPhones are “just steady improvements in hardware and software” by including AI capabilities, according to Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart.
With “super-powered Siri” that functions with all apps, Apple has the potential to significantly alter the iPhone experience in the long run, according to Greengart.
Pixel strength
Apple’s presentation closely follows Google’s, which presented its challenge to the iPhone last month with the release of AI-enabled Pixel 9 devices.
Pixels make up a very small portion of the massively dominant global smartphone industry held by Samsung and Apple, but Google claimed that their new range offers an opportunity to address the question of what, despite all the hype, AI can really achieve for consumers.
At Google’s Mountain View, California, campus, senior vice president of devices Rick Osterloh stated, “There have been so many promises, so many ‘coming soons,’ and not enough real-world helpfulness when it comes to AI—which is why today we’re getting real.”
Samsung, which wants to maintain its lead in smartphone sales worldwide, has also included AI into a number of its consumer electronics goods.
