Cupertino, California: Apple on Monday unveiled the new iPhone lineup — the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 — which the company says are “designed from the ground up” for artificial intelligence features that go beyond the generative AI features that have become famous since ChatGPT burst onto the global stage at the end of 2022.
The company also unveiled a new model of its watch — the Apple Watch X — that chief executive Tim Cook described as being the company’s thinnest ever and with display that is the biggest ever, and upgrades to its AirPods and AirPods Max lineup.
But the highlight of Monday’s event by far was important for the features in the new iPhone 16 series, which many believe could globally become the most familiar way people experience AI. At the core of it was the latest A18 and A18 Pro chips to power Apple Intelligence, the company’s own take on generative AI that can conjure text, images and other content on command.
Apple says the A18 Pro is the fastest smartphone chip, at this time, its competition including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips.
“The next generation of iPhone has been designed for Apple Intelligence from the ground up. It marks the beginning of an exciting new era,” Cook said.
Apple says all Apple Intelligence features will be free to use, for all compatible iPhone users. Android phones have also begun the AI journey, with Google increasingly integrating Gemini, its own offering, within Android.
In an attempt to set itself apart, most of the tasks will be performed on the iPhone itself instead of on the cloud, which helps data privacy — a distinction that requires special processors the company introduced since its last version of the iPhone launched last year.
Apple also demonstrated new AI features that people have been increasingly familiar with when interacting with AI chatbots. For instance, the new phone will allow people to have “rough notes rewritten into a polished dinner invite”, create new images or emojis by typing out descriptions, and look up photos by describing what was happening in the shot.
The company also baked the AI into its camera, branding it as “visual intelligence”. This will allow the phone to give context-specific information or action (such as identifying the breed of a dog in front of the user, or present restaurant reviews when pointed at its signboard).
Apple’s pivot began three months ago with a preview of its new approach during a developers conference, helping to build anticipation for Monday’s showcase.
Since that event in June, competitors such as Samsung and Google have made strides in AI as well. Google introduced its latest Pixel phones packed with their own AI features last month instead of hewing to its traditional October timetable in an effort to upstage Apple’s release of the iPhone 16.
iPhones accounted for more than half of Apple’s $383 billion sales last year.
For the Watch, the company touted a new feature to detect sleep apnoea. The company said it expects clearance from medical regulators in the US, Europe and Japan later this month.
In its new AirPods 4, the company brought in a new optional noise cancellation, a key feature of its more expensive AirPods Pro earphones.
The AirPods Pro too received a feature upgrade, which mean those owning the AirPods Pro 2 launched in September 2022, will be able to use. These include hearing protection, which dull any loud noises; hearing awareness, which offers a clinically validated hearing test; and a new feature that will turn the device into a “professional grade hearing aid”.
The AirPods Max have also been updated with a USB-C port.
