The first AI mobile phone is released, Apple enters the "one-click smart era"! What are the highlights?
Author：Eve Cole
Update Time：2024-11-22 13:18:01
On September 9, local time, Apple officially released the company’s first-ever iPhone 16 series mobile phone equipped with multiple AI functions at a press conference at its Cupertino headquarters, announcing that the smartphone giant has officially entered the “Apple Smart” market. era. "The next generation iPhone is designed for Apple Intelligence. It marks the beginning of an exciting new era." Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the product launch. The release of iPhone 16 , which enables visual intelligence with one click, is also regarded as the company’s most updated smartphone since Apple launched its first 5G smartphone, iPhone 12, in 2020. However, since many AI functions have been unveiled at the Apple Developer Conference held in June this year, the release of the new iPhone is basically in line with market expectations. At the end of the day, Apple's stock price did not change significantly. Apple's new product launch conference coincides with the beginning of a wave of global technology companies competing to add artificial intelligence to their products, and mobile phones are expected to become one of the most important "battlefields." Analysts expect artificial intelligence features to push consumers to upgrade their smartphones amid slowing iPhone sales. The market generally expects new iPhone sales to grow by about 5% in 2025. Specifically, Apple has integrated multiple AI functions into its various product series, including the affordable iPhone 16 series. One of the biggest highlights of the AI phone released this time is the addition of an "AI camera control button" on the side of the phone. , which can “realize visual intelligence with one click”. Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said the new camera controls can access "visual intelligence" through buttons on the side of the phone. For example, after clicking the button, the user can point the camera at a restaurant, and the iPhone 16 will bring up information such as restaurant reviews, menus, and how to make reservations; it can also be used to identify things like dog breeds or landmarks, and add things to in calendar. In addition, Apple's AI capabilities will also be used to improve Apple's voice assistant Siri. Siri can now extract information from users' text messages, and you can also ask Siri to send specified photos to specified users. Federighi said: "Apple Intelligence marks the beginning of a new era for Siri, making Siri more natural, more contextual, and more personalized." However, these artificial intelligence features are launched at different times in different languages and regional versions. Apple said a beta version of Apple Intelligence will be available in the U.S. English version next month. It will launch additional localized English versions in December, followed by Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish language versions next year. Canalys analyst Peng Luping told China Business News that she was not sure whether users would be able to use Apple's AI functions if they changed their language. She also said that when calling AI functions on the new iPhone, a local model needs to be used, and the frame of the phone will "glow." This also confirms the theme of this conference "Glow". Currently, Apple has announced cooperation with OpenAI to use its AI model, but Apple has not yet announced an artificial intelligence partner in China. China Business News reporters learned that Chinese partners Apple may consider include Baidu and Alibaba. Although analysts predict that Apple's AI functions may boost iPhone sales in the long term, in the short term, AI may not be a key driver for most users to choose Apple phones. However, Chinese consumers are significantly more interested in phones with AI functions than Rest of the world. A recent Canalys survey showed that only 7% of consumers globally are “very inclined” to make purchasing decisions because of AI. In Apple's two most profitable markets, the United States and China, there are huge differences in consumer interest in AI functions. In the United States, 15% of respondents said they were “very inclined” to purchase products because of AI. In China, where consumers care more about technical specifications, this figure reaches 43%. More than 300 million mobile phones have not been updated in four years. IDC analyst Nabila Popal said: "Apple Smart is a long-term plan and will have a huge impact starting next year once language support is expanded and more use cases are launched." Popal believes that this updated phone AI phones are more attractive to existing users who have used Apple devices for 3-4 years, even if some features will be launched in the future. Over the past four years, Apple has given customers almost no reason to buy the latest generation of phones. Phone cameras have evolved enough to meet most people's daily needs without major hardware changes, and at some point, higher screen resolutions won't be perceived by the human eye. According to a research report last month by investment firm Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, more than 300 million iPhones worldwide have not been upgraded in more than four years. This partly explains why Apple's iPhone sales have continued to be sluggish in recent years. The iPhone accounts for nearly half of Apple's total revenue. In the second quarter of this year, the iPhone contributed 46% of revenue. In the first quarter of this year, Apple’s iPhone revenue fell 10% year-on-year to $46 billion. Another highlight at this conference is that the regular iPhone 16 is also equipped with a faster chip and the price remains the same. According to Peng Luping, iPhone 16 uses the new A18 chip, which may be a selling point to attract users. According to reports, the new chip will increase the iPhone 16 system memory bandwidth by 17% to better support AI functions, and the GPU speed will be increased by 40%, even challenging "high-end desktop computers." This chip is designed based on Arm's next-generation V9 architecture. In addition, the high-end iPhone 16Pro series is equipped with a faster chip, the A18 Pro chip, which will be the "fastest CPU in any smartphone." The new iPhone 16 starts at $799; the iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899. The starting price of iPhone 16Pro is US$999; the starting price of iPhone 16Pro Max is US$1,199. Both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro will be available for pre-order this Friday and will be available in stores on September 20.
