CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple’s popular iPhone is breaking new ground with a move toward artificial intelligence that can do everything from making Siri smarter to creating customized emoji on the fly.
The new era will begin on Monday with the launch of the long-awaited iPhone 16 in Cupertino, California, in an auditorium named after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who in 2007 took out the original iPhone, waved it like a magic wand and predicted it would be a game changer.
Since then, Apple has sold billions of iPhones and generated about $3 trillion in shareholder wealth, but over the past decade, most upgrades between models have been minor, discouraging people from buying new iPhones. This has led to a recent slump in sales Apple’s flagship product.
The iPhone 16 is creating a lot of buzz because it’s the first model customized specifically for AI, a technology that promises to spark the biggest revolution in the smartphone industry since Jobs propelled Apple to dominate the market 17 years ago.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a research note that technological advances in the iPhone 16 could position Apple as the “gatekeeper of a consumer AI revolution.”
Apple’s turnaround began three months ago. Developer conference, It helps build anticipation for Monday’s showcase.
Since the June conference, competitors like Samsung and Google have made further advances in AI, with Google taking the unusual step of unveiling its latest Pixel smartphone with its own AI magic. last month The company delayed the release of the iPhone 16 instead of sticking to the traditional October schedule in an attempt to beat Apple’s iPhone 16 release.
To distinguish itself from its AI forerunners, the technology in the iPhone 16 is being touted as “Apple Intelligence,” but Apple Intelligence is similar to the more generically named AI already found in the Google Pixel 9 and Google Surface Pro. The Samsung Galaxy S24 was released in January.
Most of Apple’s AI tasks run on the iPhone itself rather than in remote data centers, a difference that means the upcoming models, as well as the high-end iPhone 15s released a year ago, require special processors.
That has investors expecting a surge in demand for the iPhone 16, and sales have surged since Apple unveiled its AI strategy in June, sending Apple’s stock up 13% — a surge that’s added nearly $400 billion to the company’s market capitalization.
