Apple Glowtime Event: Apple today announced that it will launch the iPhone 16 during the Apple Event
SAN FRANCISCO:
Apple will unveil its iPhone 16 lineup today, with an emphasis on how flagship features are integrated with artificial intelligence, rather than the usual emphasis on hardware upgrades.
The event at the tech giant's headquarters in Apple Park at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT) follows its June developer conference, at which the company unveiled Apple Intelligence, its version of generative AI that can summon text, images and other content on command.
An improved version of the voice assistant Siri was also shown, with integration with ChatGPT, the chatbot developed by OpenAI, a company backed by Microsoft.
The overhaul comes as iPhones face stiff competition from Huawei in China, where consumers are hungry for more AI features and are willing to pay for them. Huawei itself has scheduled its own product announcement just hours after Apple's event.
Apple Intelligence must be approved by Beijing before it can be released in the Chinese market. In July, OpenAI blocked access to ChatGPT in China, a move that could impact the chatbot’s integration with Siri.
“The Chinese market is hungrier for AI features than the U.S. market,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO and principal analyst at Creative Strategies. “It’s going to be very difficult to bring it to China right away, so they’re going to go by the merits of the hardware.”
Last year, iPhones accounted for more than half of Apple’s $383 billion in revenue. The new devices are a major update for the Cupertino, California-based company, which is betting that AI capabilities will encourage consumers to upgrade as iPhone sales slow.
In China, Apple significantly cut prices earlier this year, due to government restrictions and increased domestic competition.
The iPhone 16 line will be the first Apple smartphone designed around these AI features, though they will also be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the top-of-the-line versions of the previous-generation devices. New versions of the Apple Watch and AirPods are also expected.
“The software side, and how Apple frames that, is the biggest question,” Bajarin said. “Investors will be looking at whether it’s attractive enough to have a larger-than-normal upgrade cycle.”
Competitors such as Alphabet's Google are also showing off AI features in an attempt to break Apple's dominant position in the high-end smartphone market.
Google, developer of the Android operating system that competes with Apple's iOS, traditionally announces its Pixel smartphones in the fall. This year, it moved the event to August, ahead of Apple's announcement.
Google focused on AI features, including Gemini Live, which lets users have live voice conversations with a digital assistant. Many of the AI features Google announced were also rolled out to Android devices from manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola.
“The question is who will be the first to combine a truly personal AI assistant with accurate and personalized knowledge and information,” said Bob O’Donnell, principal analyst at TECHnalysis Research.
Apple has so far only revealed a timeline for Apple Intelligence’s release in the United States, where it’s expected to arrive on compatible devices this fall.
In June, a week after the developer conference, Apple announced that the release in Europe would be delayed due to European Union technical regulations.
