Painting the "AI pie", while iPhone16 is still squeezing toothpaste, domestic users are waiting for something even better

At 1 am Beijing time on September 10th, the annual technology industry's Spring Festival officially kicked off. In less than 100 minutes, the first 40 minutes were a prelude to the new Apple Watch and AirPods 4, followed by the introduction of the iPhone 16 series, with a starting price of 5999 yuan for the standard version and 7999 yuan for the Pro version.

iPhone 16 Pro Series

The new generation of iPhone does have stronger performance, aligning everything with AI, and brings many new user experiences. The larger size, added camera button and color options have excited many users. Some Apple fans even commented that this year's iPhone 16 is the biggest update in recent years.

However, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. The amazing feeling of past new products is becoming more unfamiliar. Just like how Luo Yonghao joked about Apple changing the position of the camera lens in a live broadcast.

In fact, the once mysterious iPhone 16 series was almost completely exposed even before the launch event, with fewer and fewer people staying up late to watch. The autumn launch event now seems more like a routine ritual for Apple to release a new iPhone. As for the "highlight moment" theme, most people probably feel indifferent.

There are improvements, but not enough to upgrade, especially for Chinese users who will have to wait until next year to experience AI. Emergency communication, which is a standard feature on domestic flagship phones, is not supported in the Chinese market by the iPhone 16. Nabila Popal, Senior Director of IDC's Global Data and Analysis Team, told Titanium Media APP that due to the lack of complete language support by Apple Intelligence, the new product is unlikely to bring much growth, but rather prevent Apple's decline.

In contrast to the lackluster new products, Tencent's appearance during the event was unexpected and somewhat of a surprise for Chinese users. While introducing the iPhone 16, Apple promoted Tencent's new game "Honor of Kings: World" and announced that it will be available on the iPhone 16 next year. Recently, Apple and Tencent also sparked discussions due to the "either-or" issue, making it a hot topic.

Watches and headphones may have more highlights than the iPhone

Without the "one more thing," Apple's autumn launch event seemed to lack some anticipation. This time, Apple introduced updates for four products in total. Although the Apple Watch and AirPods were just appetizers, the overall upgrades had some highlights, especially in terms of health features.

Compared to the squeezing of the toothpaste with the iPhone 16 series, many netizens felt that the new products of Apple Watch and AirPods had more sincerity and highlights after watching the event. Although this is a joke, it also reflects the lack of innovation in the iPhone This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Apple Watch. As expected, Apple's big move turned out to be just a routine update, with a starting price of 2999 yuan. Simply put, bigger, lighter, and thinner, these are the core upgrades of the Apple Watch Series 10 this time. On the official website's new product promotion page, Apple also describes the Apple Watch Series 10 as "thin to the extreme".

Apple Watch Series 10

According to official information, the Apple Watch Series 10 is equipped with the largest screen in the series, featuring a wider-angle OLED display than the Apple Watch Ultra, with a 30% increase in screen area. It has a thickness of 9.7 mm, nearly 10% thinner than the Series 9. The new 5th grade titanium material is 20% lighter than the previous stainless steel material. Additionally, the new aluminum case is 10% lighter than the previous generation.

In terms of functionality, the newly designed speaker allows the Apple Watch Series 10 to play music and podcasts. To further enhance the user's health experience, the Apple Watch Series 10 can alert users to instances of sleep apnea, a new feature that will also be available in the Apple Watch Ultra 2. As a watch released in 2022, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 also introduces a black version and a titanium Milanese loop strap, with no significant hardware updates, priced at 6499 yuan.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

In terms of new headphones, the AirPods 4 introduces active noise cancellation for the first time with the launch of optional models, bringing this feature to the in-ear design. According to reports, the AirPods 4 benefits from the H2 chip and upgraded microphone, allowing the active noise cancellation feature to reduce low-frequency environmental noise caused by factors such as airplane engines, HVAC systems, and city traffic.

Although there is no iteration for the AirPods Pro, the addition of "clinical-grade" hearing aid functionality can be considered a boon for the hearing-impaired population, which is also one of the few highlights of this release event. Users can conduct a hearing test using AirPods and iPhone, and view the results in the Health app.

If hearing loss is detected, the hearing aid mode can be used. When listening to audio such as music or podcasts, a custom hearing configuration profile will be automatically applied. Currently, the hearing aid feature is undergoing approval by the FDA and other regulatory agencies. Apple announced at the event that this feature will be available in over 100 countries.

Still squeezing the toothpaste, the iPhone16 standard version offers better value for money as the highlight of this event. Throughout the nearly 1-hour presentation of the iPhone16 series, AI occupies the majority of the content, with many updates and designs aimed at better serving AI And aside from the factor of AI, the iPhone 16 series is still like last year's 15, with incremental upgrades, saving where possible, and the "highlight moment" is not yet here.

In the current era of excessive smartphone performance, many consumers buy the new iPhone just to let others know that they are using the latest model. From this perspective alone, this year's iPhone 16 series should be able to trigger a wave of upgrades, especially the standard version. Moreover, the standard version also supports Apple Intelligence, the performance is sufficient, and the prices in the secondary market will be more appropriate. If there is no high demand, the overall cost-effectiveness will be higher than the Pro version.

iPhone 16

Specifically, the sizes of the iPhone 16 and iPhone Plus are still 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches respectively, offering five colors: indigo, deep cyan, pink, white, and black. There are significant changes in design, with the silent button upgraded to an operation button, and a camera button added on the right side, which can be clicked to launch the camera application, clicked again to take a photo, and held down to record a video. By sliding your finger, you can adjust camera functions such as exposure and depth of field, switch between different lenses, or use digital zoom for composition.

In addition to the new shortcut buttons, the rear camera module of the iPhone 16 standard version has changed from the previous diagonal to a vertical design, similar to the iPhone X. This is done to shoot spatial videos to match Apple Vision Pro. In terms of imaging capabilities, there has also been a simple improvement, with the main camera upgraded to 48 million pixels, capable of shooting 4K 60fps Dolby Vision HDR video. The ultra-wide-angle lens is 12 million pixels, with an aperture of F/2.2.

To support Apple Intelligence, the operating content of the iPhone 16 standard version has been increased to 8GB, consistent with the Pro version. It is equipped with the new A18 processor, built on the second-generation 3-nanometer process, capable of supporting AAA games, with the speed of running machine learning models up to 2 times faster than the A16 Bionic chip. However, one point to criticize is that even with the powerful A18 processor, the iPhone 16 standard version still does not support high refresh rates.

Compared to the standard version, the iPhone 16 Pro maintains a similar design to the previous generation, with the addition of a camera button. In terms of size, it has been upgraded from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches to 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches respectively, with narrower black borders for a better visual experience. However, a larger screen also means increased weight. According to the official specifications, the weight of the iPhone 16 Pro is 199g, 12g heavier than the previous generation. The weight of the iPhone 16 Pro Max is 227g, 6g heavier than the previous generation iPhone16 Pro

In terms of color matching, the iPhone16 Pro series comes in four colors: Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, and Desert Titanium. From the first-hand experience of the blogger on-site, due to the upgrade of materials, the Natural Titanium color is lighter compared to the previous generation, while the Desert color leans towards gold.

The Pro series has also been upgraded in terms of processor, adopting the higher-performance A18 Pro chip, with a built-in 6-core processor and 16-core neural network engine, which will excel in gaming performance and multitasking. In terms of imaging, always leading iPhone now also supports shooting 4K 120fps Dolby Vision video, which can be used in slow motion or regular video mode, with playback options including 120, 60, 30, or 24fps, and intelligent audio processing.

However, one point to criticize is that despite supporting 4K 120fps shooting, the starting memory of the iPhone16 Pro series is still 128GB, which doesn't feel very "Pro", giving the impression of simply wanting to lower the starting price, hence it's no wonder that netizens sarcastically comment "Apple's memory is made of gold".

Apple's AI is still a "pie", domestic users are waiting for something better.

From the updates of the iPhone16 series, whether it's the addition of the camera button or the improvement in processor performance, all upgrades are designed for AI. Just as Apple CEO Cook said during the launch event, "The new generation of iPhone is completely designed for Apple Intelligence".

For Apple Intelligence's personalized intelligent system, Apple has five evaluation criteria: powerful enough to help you in various important matters; intuitive and easy to use; deeply integrated into the product experience; must understand you and be based on your personal context, such as daily schedule, interpersonal relationships, communication, etc.; and privacy protection has been emphasized since the design stage.

From the on-site demonstration, this time the features and experience of Apple Intelligence are not much different from what was shown at WWDC before, such as AI elimination, smart replies, and Live Text, which are already common features in domestic phones. The only differentiation might be the addition of a new camera button that can identify images with one click for corresponding searches.

It is worth mentioning that the functions currently shown are still in testing, and Apple Intelligence currently only supports English. In December, English dialects in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK will be supported, while Chinese market users will have to wait until next year to experience Apple Intelligence.

Cook is very much looking forward to Apple Intelligence and the series of impacts it will bring, believing it will become one of the key reasons for users to switch phones However, looking at the current situation, Apple's AI is still a "big cake" that is yet to be tasted. According to information obtained by Titanium Media APP, Apple is currently selecting and negotiating with cloud service providers, and its own local model also needs to be filed in China before it can go online.

Earlier, there were reports that Apple would launch a subscription service after providing 3 years of free Apple Intelligence services, with a monthly fee of $20. It is unknown whether users, especially in China, will accept this fee and pricing standard. Tang Fangxin, head of enterprise business at Wanxing Technology, told Titanium Media APP that behind the development of AI lies huge research and manpower costs. Charging for AI by tech companies is a natural choice in exploring the commercialization of AI, but whether users will pay depends on whether the AI functions can meet their needs. Users can decide whether to purchase based on their actual needs.

Titanium Media APP believes that without experiencing Apple Intelligence in the short term, and with no revolutionary upgrades this time, users with a need to change their phones can wait a bit longer. Perhaps the discounts during Double 11 will be greater than in previous years, and the speed of iPhone price reductions will also be faster.

According to Apple analyst Guo Mingji's disclosure, the upgrade of the iPhone 17 series next year will be more significant. The standard version will support high refresh rates, all models will come with graphite sheet cooling, and the memory will be upgraded to 12GB for smoother operation of Apple Intelligence. Looking at the current configuration of the iPhone 16 series, there are doubts about whether the battery life, heat dissipation, and smooth operation with 8GB of memory can continue with the addition of AI. Waiting a bit longer, perhaps the iPhone 17 series will be a better choice for Apple AI.

In addition, due to the current uncertainties in various aspects, the market also holds a conservative attitude towards the performance of the iPhone 16 series. Nabila Popal, Senior Director of IDC's Global Data and Analysis Team, pointed out that IDC's forecast for the entire smartphone market this year is a 6% growth, with most of the growth coming from 7% for Android and about 1% for Apple. There has been a lot of negative sentiment about Apple in the market in the first half of this year. Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC in June, but even so, it did not change the rules of the game but to some extent prevented Apple's decline and stabilized its position.

Mark Gurman also believes that a super cycle for the iPhone is unlikely this year, partly due to macroeconomic factors: the demand for smartphones in the Chinese market is still weak, and many other consumers worldwide are budget-conscious. A bigger issue may be attributed to the phone itself, as consumers need to wait some time to experience the best features of Apple Intelligence, thus unable to create a "super cycle" that drives the hot sale of the iPhone 16 upgrade. In contrast, the iPhone 17 next year is more promising. (This article was first published on Titanium Media APP, Author | Du Zhiqiang, Editor | Zhong Yi)