Apple Glowtime Event
Apple will not say this, but its greatest insecurity is that it has made the iPhone too predictable. For the most part, it has been staying quite constant in the last 7 years with minor updates to its cameras, cessors and battery life.
But Apple sought to rise above that very predictability on Monday with the introduction of a pair of new iPhones built “from scratch” for artificial intelligence, as CEO Tim Cook described them in his opening remarks.
Staying true to its recent slew of virtual product launches, which were birthed during the Covid era for obvious reasons, depicts a prerecorded video shot from Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters announcing iPhone 16 as it has tuned out in four versions tailor-made for work on Apple Intelligence — –the generative AI-powered platform courtesy of Cupertino. Apple reportedly plans to provide its devices with the ability to listen for ʺHey, Siri!
That included the Apple Watch Series 10, with a larger and brighter screen that is about 10% smaller than its Series 9 predecessor. It also announced AirPods Pro, a new model that serves as an audio over-the-counter device (Apple’s first) and can reduce noise at concerts or construction sites automatically.
Going All In on AI and Hoping it Can Save Sluggish iPhone Sales
It is very important for Apple to launch its new phones, which has poor sales in 2021. Most recently Apple saw its biggest impact in iPhone year-over-year unit sales growth as a result of 5G.
A recent weak point for Apple has been iPhone owners keeping their phones longer. In reorganising its engineering teams around work in AI, the company is betting big that the tech will also persuade consumers to buy new gadgets — predicting which look at and it can slag off over others; algo-generated pics are useful for writing software as well as giving robotic-style replies when asked things.
With these announcements, Apple is attempting to play a significant role in bringing AI to the masses. Although Microsoft, Google, and Samsung have added generative AI features to products, these features have not yet been broadly utilized. However, as demonstrated by digital music players, smartphones, and smartwatches, Apple has shown in the past that it is willing to wait to adopt and promote developing technologies.
The Gen AI Kool-Aid Factor
While AI is the flavour of the season for consumers, its unclear if most mainstream users will buy into Apple Intelligence Kool-Aid and upgrade their iPhones.
As you may know, Google demonstrated their own model in September and Microsoft did so last December — OpenAI has, as well also been teasing some significant demos for many months now. But the question still remains: Will the benefits of AI be enough for iPhone users to finally upgrade, or will it just seem like a “shiny object” that appeals only temporarily?
Put in that context, the iPhone 16 cuts more features at launch to what Apple promised back in June when it revealed things like Apple Intelligence.
Next month, users will be able to describe photos of themselves—or others—to Siri in order to easily find those same images again faster than ever before and receive more concise notifications on their devices only for direction about how they might write. The camera will also recognize plants, flowers and specific breed of dogs thanks to artificial intelligence.
Is Consumers Personal Privacy the Price for AI Convenience?
These benefits all require mobile phone users to open the kimono on private information like never before, and whether mainstream consumers are willing to make these concessions in privacy for a fully AI-empowered experience remains unclear.
All the other features will be added step by step. One thing new Siri can do, for example, is to respond to phone requests that involve gathering private data — like pulling flight info from a relative’s text message and reaching out to the airline for live arrival information.
Any requests that don’t involve personal data such as, “tell me something fun”, will be immediately sent to ChatGPT, a voice-enabled implementation of OpenAI’s GPT-3 natural language model that Apple made available on iPhones in the spring.
How Apple is Playing It Safe with Generative AI
Apple, less interested in AI overall than its rivals (and thus locking it down to GANs using rules and training data they control), is also likely taking an intentionally narrow view of what the iPhone can do here.
Google, meanwhile introduced the Pixel phone last month with a conversational virtual assistant and ability to photoshop users into photos on command along with detailed questioning capabilities via company generative AI chatbot Gemini.
Google has made its share of AI mistakes too, including an absurd dialogue created by a chatbot (and even scarily inappropriate).
A Mild Update on 16 New iPhones
Apple launched four new versions of the iPhone 16 that all come with a camera button re-design
The base models, the 16 and so-called Plus version, sport a stronger camera as well as faster processor plus an “Action” button users can program to instantly turn on the phone’s flashlight or other internal app.
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are the pricier models, priced at $999 an$1,199 respectively. This includes slightly bigger screens, a larger battery and the ability to record audio with professional studio quality. That latter feature would only solidify the iPhone Pro brand as the device for users who should care about computational video and photography apps.
Apple Intelligence is powered by the same processors as in Pro line phones too. In the standard iPhone 16 we can now find an A18 chip, while in one of them is going to use Pro’s a reinforced processor – it features the so-called A18 Pro. This is less profound compared to the capabilities of more expensive and lesser models in previous years.
Apple’s Issues Overseas
Apple must now contend with a new set of challenges in the era of generative AI. The iPhone is only 17 years old, and for most of its age, Apple has still maintained a single software service that it would update worldwide. But an increasing number of countries insist that the data and computer methods fed into AI be siloed within their nations.
One would hope that AI systems will, in the course of time turn out to be able to acknowledge language and culture among other aspects particular for specific users. In response, Apple might need to make region-specific software as well and then it goes on.
This has huge software complexity ramifications — which I doubt the company is yet ready to handle, from a resource perspective.
Apple said at the launch that a beta software update for Apple Intelligence will be available in January 2021. Apple later this year will expand Apple Intelligence to English-speaking markets in Europe, the Pacific Rim, and South Africa — though many countries won’t get it until 2022 if they do at all.
Apple Intelligence: The Untested Future
While Apple Intelligence does leapfrog the existing fragmented voice struggles and clunky 3rd party service linkage issues to potentially offer a far better user experience with some interesting AI-powered benefits, including personalization on steroids you use every day with much higher levels of privacy at least as default, if not more so than now. But net-net will that drive iPhone sales? The devil is in the details when it comes to company wide services strategies intersecting product lines today i.e., no editorialization — car life requires patience for all players like never before and returns only slow after compounding your best results over time into usable features by real people from good enough beginning specs. Tech enthusiasts and those deep into the Apple ecosystem may see these innovations as a pretty good excuse to upgrade. But given the incremental nature of these improvements — particularly with respect to a smartphone market that has reached saturation levels — they may not be enough to ignite broad consumer demand, especially among price-conscious or casual shoppers.
Apple’s iPhone sales will ultimately hinge on the attractiveness of its AI features, plus pricing and broader market dynamics – economic conditions, competition from rivals like Samsung(smsn) and Google(goog).
Consumers, of course, are another matter: indeed an initial question is whether gen-AI will work at all — though Apple’s peerless capacity for message drilling and brand-building might give it a fighting chance.