TheiPhone 16 lineupwill fetch in more money for Apple than anything else this twelvemonth . As many other parts of the company ( namely services ) are growing , the overall chance of Apple still prove and go down on iPhone sales agreement . You would think that would make the iPhone 16 Apple ’s most important product this year , but no . That distinction go toiOS 18 ; or more specifically , the on - twist AI sport it is bear to bring to our pocket this dusk .
For salutary or worse , it ’s all about AI these sidereal day . Every tech company has to have a “ drawing card in AI ” story to fulfil investors , even if user are set out to get drill with AI chatbots already . And Apple , though the company has used lots of AI and ML ( political machine encyclopaedism ) in many of its products for years , has been really slow to release anything that could be considered free-enterprise in the snowy - spicy “ generative AI ” outer space .
You know : image / video recording / music creation , fresh chatbots that can write and contain natural conversations , codification generation , and so on . While some gen - AI tools out there are little more than a gimmick or fad , others are being used by millions every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . Whether it ’s using AI to become your selfie into a Monet for your avatar picture or absent an undesirable person in the screen background of your preferent beach photo with a single hydrant … the tech world is run toward gen - AI , and Apple involve to deliver .
The software that runs on the iPhone will be far more important this year.
Apple’s big selling point: On-device privacy
We expect Apple to release a retinue of gen - AI tool with iOS 18 . rumour say to have a bun in the oven many of the feature article you would imagine , center on a smarter , more capable , and more instinctive Siri that can do more of what ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot can instead of just sometimes plant timers or telling you the conditions correctly . Pages , Numbers , and Keynote are expected to get gen - AI features to help you more easily produce great documents , Xcode could get code generation features , Safari may get AI - powered pageboy summary , and we would n’t be at all surprised to see enhanced photo or even video editing that leverages advanced AI lineament .
The software package that runs on the iPhone will be far more important this year .
Jason Snell / Foundry
The software that runs on the iPhone will be far more important this year.
But Apple ’s giving hook , harmonise to Mark Gurman ’s tout , is that it will practice an LLM ( Large Language Model , the core word of many types of procreative AI ) that run all on - gadget . Some of Apple ’s recent AI caller accomplishment likeDatakalabandDarwinAIhave specialized in create AI models that scarper on modified computer hardware . Recent research papers likeLLM in a Flashfocus on take big AI models that notoriously require lots of RAM and compute index and finding young optimization method to have them run expeditiously on machine with less resources ( like an iPhone ) .
It all makes mother wit , of course . Apple is the “ what happens on iPhone stay on iPhone ” company . Faced with premium Android phone that arguably take photos just as well or good , and earphone hardware that long since croak the point of being “ tight enough , ” Apple has to regain something that really name itself from its competitors , and that ’s privacy and security . The best agency to ensure neither Apple nor any third - party can scoop up all your datum is to keep everything on your telephone set in the first place , and end - to - end encrypt everything that leaves it .
So that ’s going to be Apple ’s great play : With iOS 18 , your iPhone has AI features just like all those other guys , but with Apple , it’sprivateandsecure .
Some iOS 18 features might be unavailable on older phones, so they need to be compelling enough to get people to upgrade.
Privacy is not enough
Privacy is a good affair . When it comes to access your personal data point — either that which you make purposely like photos and calendar appointments or those you generate automatically like your location and shop history — it ’s effective to ensure that nothing has to go up into the cloud to be processed by some computing equipment you do n’t check .
The thing is , most mass just do n’t seem to care . Apple has been on a big privacy marketing push for quite a while now and there ’s no real meter reading that it ’s make the great unwashed choose iPhone over other alternatives . In fact , iPhone sale were down almost 10 percentlast fourth compared to the year before and they could be in fora steeper dropwhen earnings are announce next calendar month .
Sure , somepeople really care about privacy , and they ’ll be certain to narrate you all about it on social media . But the market at tumid — more than a billion smartphone users — seems perfectly happy to countenance a jumbo megacorp easy lay up , sift through , monetize , bunch up up , and betray off literally everything about them as long as they give birth a cool product .
Apple does n’t have to have every undivided AI feature everyone else does ( likeOpenAI ’s Sora telecasting generation ) , but what it has better be good enough to make people need to buy an iPhone to practice it . We expect iOS 18 to be announced and make undulation atWWDC in June , but it ’s not belong to be released to the billion iPhone users of the world until September . That ’s an eternity in AI development meter . Apple is competing not with what is out theretodaybut with what Meta , OpenAI , Microsoft , and Google will have in exploiter ’ hands by the end of the year .
The new Siri , or Photos feature , or Music features , or whatever else Apple has up its sleeve , has pay off to at least becompetitivewith that stuff , while run under the difficult restrictions of go completely on - twist . If not , the iPhone will earn a reputation for being “ not a phone you desire if you care AI ” and be stuck with it until iOS 19 in September 2025 .
Great AI in iOS will sell the iPhone 16
We ’re at the item where the new iPhones every class are just predictably good and a modest melioration over the year before . We expect the same with the iPhone 16 line – faster , some short features like solid - nation buttons , and the television camera ’s a little proficient … the intact premium smartphone world is in that same sauceboat . Transformative experiences that make you run away out and buy a newfangled gadget do n’t come from computer hardware that is 15 percent well , it come up from amazing software that your four - year - sure-enough headphone ca n’t pass .
iOS 18 is rumored to be compatible with the same iPhones as Io 17 , which would include all model going back to the iPhone XR . But just because your iPhone from 2018 can get iOS 18 does n’t mean it will get all of the young feature , especially the AI ones . In recent year , Apple has held back numerous features from older phone due to the power of the hardware to run them properly .
Some iOS 18 feature might be unavailable on old phones , so they require to be compelling enough to get people to upgrade .
Outside of the modest fancier grocery store , most citizenry do n’t care to run out and buy the young iPhone just because it ’s got Titanium or a 5x soar or a little flake faster processor . They buy it becauseit ’s the new iPhoneand their one-time iPhone is get old . The ecosystem and strength of the stain are what drive iPhone sales , along with pricing .
If Apple wants to sell a lot of new iPhones , it needs to hype upthe idea of the iPhonemore than the iPhone 16 specifically . And this year , that mean make the iPhone operating system of rules something that really get the great unwashed speak . Something meme - worthy ( in a good way ) . Apple needs people to post “ I just enjoin this to Siri and I ca n’t believe what it did ” tarradiddle to their societal media provender . And that means making iOS 18 ’s private , safe , on - gadget AI impressive enough to make steady hoi polloi say “ wow . ” Wow moment are all about performance , not privacy . Nobody has ever stake to their socials , “ Wow , I ca n’t believe howprivatethis feature is ! ”
make must - have AI features the define characteristic of “ iPhones ” with iOS 18 will not only please the investor category that is willing to drop limitless money at all things AI right now , but it will elevate the most famous smartphone brand in the earth , andthatis how Apple sells more iPhones .
