Apple joins generative AI race with iPhone 16 series and promises more to come

Tech giant looks to the technology to drive flagship sales

An attendee tries out an Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset with the Apple iPhone 16 Pro, at the unveiling of the latest iPhone at Cupertino, California. Bloomberg

Apple has joined the generative artificial intelligence race with the unveiling of its iPhone 16 series, aiming to keep abreast of the technology expected to drive the next generation of mobile devices.

The world's most valuable company introduced four new devices – the base iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max – at its annual event in Cupertino, California, on Monday.

The devices are powered by Apple Intelligence – the company's take on generative AI. Artificial intelligence has upended productivity and processes among users.

Announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the service was described as a “personal intelligence” system for iPhones, iPads and Macs, which combines the power of generative models with personal context.

Apple also added a new Camera Control button on all devices, which controls certain camera features by sliding a finger through the new hardware component on the right side of the device.

Adding the button is “interesting” and a “nice touch”, and can be considered a gateway to a wider use of AI on the iPhone, said Nicole Peng, senior vice president at Singapore research firm Canalys.

“For the iPhone, [Apple's] unique perspective is using the camera to be able to achieve a lot of things,” she told The National at the event.

“It has to start from something quite easy to use, like the day-to-day experience on the camera.”

At Monday's event, Apple chief executive Tim Cook promised it will “put powerful generative models right at the core of your iPhone”.

“The next generation of iPhones has been designed for Apple Intelligence from the ground up. It marks the beginning of an exciting new era,” Mr Cook said.

Apple Intelligence introduces more language capabilities in iOS 18, as well as the coming iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia – boosting users' communication and writing abilities.

It will allow them to use typical generative AI offerings, such as summarising and organising messages, creating timelines in Photos and generating images, among other uses.

The company also assured that Apple Intelligence will adhere to safety and privacy standards, with all processes on devices and no user information collected.

In July, Apple was reported to have joined fellow Big Tech companies to agree to abide by a wide-ranging set of voluntary commitments set out by the US, aimed at ensuring the responsible use of AI in the lead-up to Apple Intelligence's introduction.

Generative AI took off last year with the advent of OpenAI's ChatGPT, the conversational AI that eventually became an all-around AI generator for text, images and video.

That led to a new battlefront among technology companies aiming to tap into its potential, with competitors such as Microsoft's Copilot and Google's Gemini, which has been integrated into the Alphabet-owned company's latest Pixel 9 smartphones announced last month.

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, was able to go a step ahead with its own Galaxy AI, first introduced in its Galaxy S24 series in January and later in its latest Galaxy Z foldables in July.

Apple's entry into the generative AI race was much hyped. The company is notable for not being the first to introduce certain features or services, but when it does, it is seen as a benchmark, as well as with a notion of “cool”, especially among its loyal user base.

The company at the Worldwide Developers' Conference has also announced a partnership with Microsoft-backed OpenAI, in which ChatGPT will be integrated into Apple's Siri digital assistant this year.

It is unclear how Apple Intelligence will be received, but given the way the company integrates services in its ecosystem, it is expected to be a seamless experience, barring any bugs.

“Apple's launch today has delivered a lot of the cool AI features promised at the WWDC and done what they do best – showcased a compelling consumer story, telling the user how Apple Intelligence will improve their life,” Nabila Popal, a senior research director at the International Data Corporation, told The National.

Apple is also betting that the new iPhone 16 will prop up sales, at a time interest in the flagship device is facing challenges, particularly in the key Chinese market.

The company's iPhone launch cycle is timed before Apple's fiscal first quarter, from October to December, the critical holiday season in which sales have historically performed well.

Apple stopped reporting hardware unit sales in 2018. The company was estimated to have shipped about 80.5 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2023, data from the International Data Corporation shows.

Apple, with a market cap of $3.36 trillion on Monday, maintained a strong bottom line, posting a 7.8 per cent jump in net profit and a 5 per cent rise in revenue in its fiscal second quarter – which was a sales record for a June quarter.

Apple also introduced two variants of the new AirPods 4, one of which comes with active noise cancellation. It also announced token updates to the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, and a new colour for the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

It also introduced Apple Watch Series 10, which it said is its thinnest and lightest yet, on the 10th anniversary of the original Watch's unveiling in 2014.