Apple's Fall Event: AI-Powered iPhone 16 Leads a Supercycle?

Apple's Fall Event: AI-Powered iPhone 16 Leads a Supercycle?On September 10, 2024, Apple held its annual fall product launch event, themed "Highlight Moments," unveiling the Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods 4 series, and the highly anticipated iPhone 16 lineup. This year, Apple significantly bridged the gap between standard and Pro models by bringing Pro-level hardware features to the standard versions

Apple's Fall Event: AI-Powered iPhone 16 Leads a Supercycle?

On September 10, 2024, Apple held its annual fall product launch event, themed "Highlight Moments," unveiling the Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods 4 series, and the highly anticipated iPhone 16 lineup. This year, Apple significantly bridged the gap between standard and Pro models by bringing Pro-level hardware features to the standard versions. While the Ultra models of the wearable product line the Apple Watch and AirPods saw limited hardware upgrades, with the primary focus on new color options, CEO Tim Cook prominently mentioned "Apple Intelligence" and "Machine Learning" at the event's opening, highlighting the company's strong emphasis on AI in 2024. Apple even dedicated a section to showcasing the AI capabilities integrated into the iPhone 16, going so far as to introduce a dedicated "Camera Control" button on all iPhone 16 models. This button enhances the SoC bandwidth, enabling users to access AI visual features with a single touch, lowering the barrier to entry for utilizing these advanced capabilities.

Industry analysts predict that the iPhone 16 will usher in an AI-driven supercycle for Apple. Daniel Ives, Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Wedbush Securities, confidently asserts that iPhone sales could surpass 240 million units in fiscal year 2025. In comparison, the iPhone 6 series, the highest-selling iPhone lineup to date, reached sales of 220 million units. However, there's a significant caveat: Apple Intelligence won't be immediately available in all regions. Users in mainland China will have to wait until next year to experience this new feature.

Significant Upgrades to Watches and Earbuds, Pro Features Pushed Down

Apple's smartwatch, the Apple Watch, has reached its tenth anniversary. This year, the Apple Watch Series 10 sees substantial upgrades compared to its predecessor, primarily focused on two key areas: slimmer design and enhanced health monitoring. The Apple Watch Series 10 boasts a 10% reduction in overall thickness, measuring just 9.7mm, with a weight reduction to under 30g. New additions include depth and water temperature sensors. The Series 10 models have also shifted from 41mm/45mm sizes to 42mm/46mm, offering a larger display area with a more rounded appearance. Furthermore, the Series 10 incorporates a wide-angle OLED display, providing up to 40% increased brightness when viewed at an angle compared to the Apple Watch Series 9.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is equipped with a new depth gauge and water temperature sensor. With its 50-meter water resistance rating, it features automatic stroke detection, lap counting, and the ability to measure depths up to 6 meters underwater. This makes it suitable for snorkeling and shallow dives. Users engaging in pool swimming and open-water swimming workouts will see water temperature displayed as part of their fitness metrics. While sleep apnea detection, a feature already commonplace in other smartwatches, is finally included in the Apple Watch Series 10, providing analysis and alerts, alongside detailed data for medical reference, it's currently only available in over 150 countries and regions, excluding mainland China. The battery life of the new Apple Watch Series 10 remains unchanged at 18 hours, although the charge time has been reduced to 30 minutes for 0-80% charging.

While no new Apple Watch Ultra was released this year, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 received new color options and matching black titanium bands.

After a three-year gap, the AirPods 4 represent the most significant upgrade in the headphone lineup. Maintaining the semi-in-ear design, the AirPods 4 introduce noise-canceling capability and support for adaptive audio, transparency mode, and wireless charging cases with built-in speakers for finding the case, features previously exclusive to the Pro model. Even though the AirPods Pro 2 debuted some time ago, Apple continues to push out functional over-the-air (OTA) updates. In the future, the AirPods Pro 2 will offer an over-the-counter hearing aid feature for individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss, effectively transforming them into clinical-grade hearing aids. This feature is currently available in over 100 countries, including the United States, Germany, and Japan.

The AirPods Max have now transitioned to a USB-C port and come in new color options: Starlight, Orange, Purple, Blue, and Midnight, marking the end of the Lightning connector for the headphone product line.

Full-Featured iPhone 16 for China? Wait Until Next Year

"Apple Intelligence" is the defining keyword for the iPhone 16 series, and to make it a standard feature across the lineup, the iPhone 16 standard model has received significant upgrades. Let's start with the focus of this event: Apple Intelligence. In the short term, non-English-speaking countries will miss out on this feature. Apple Intelligence will only be accessible to users in the United States starting in October, gradually expanding to English-speaking regions like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom in December. Support for other languages, including Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish, will gradually become available in 2025. For mainland China, regardless of where the iPhone was purchased or the Apple ID location settings, Apple Intelligence will remain unavailable until its launch in mainland China.

Currently, Apple Intelligence supports system-level features such as writing (proofreading and rewriting content), text summarization, and email replies. However, integration with ChatGPT, image generation using ImagePlayground, and Genmoji symbol generation do not yet have a confirmed launch date.

At the event, Apple Intelligent also showcased new AI visual recognition capabilities: Pressing the "Camera Control" button, now standard on all iPhone 16 models, activates visual recognition features. Apple demonstrated functionalities like image-based search for content and products, displaying business information and customer reviews for photographed stores.

It's worth noting that Apple's AI model, Apple Intelligence, utilizes a combined approach of on-device and cloud processing: Most of the Apple Intelligence models run entirely on the device, while for more complex tasks requiring greater computing power, the iPhone will leverage PrivateCloudCompute via the internet. In cases of PrivateCloudCompute, user data is not stored or shared with Apple, but solely used to process their requests. Independent experts can review the code running on Apple's chip-equipped servers to continuously verify this privacy guarantee. Furthermore, users accessing ChatGPT through Siri or the "writing tool" will also benefit from built-in privacy protection: Their IP addresses are masked, and OpenAI does not store their requests. Access to ChatGPT is free without the need for account creation, although ChatGPT's data usage policies apply to users who choose to link their accounts.

To power Apple Intelligence, the iPhone 16 series has undergone substantial upgrades: Beyond the addition of new Deep Blue and Cerulean color options, the standard model has incorporated the "Action" button, previously exclusive to Pro models, along with the new "Camera Control" button that becomes standard across the lineup. This "Camera Control" button, in addition to activating AI visual capabilities for Apple Intelligence, also triggers camera functions, acting as a shutter button to access zoom, depth control, and shooting style parameters. The event showcased that the "Camera Control" button is not a mechanical button but employs a capacitive design, supporting force and sliding gestures, offering a user experience similar to traditional camera shutter buttons.

In terms of core processors, the iPhone 16 standard model finally catches up, featuring the latest A18 chip built on the second-generation 3nm manufacturing process. The A18 boasts a 6-core CPU, comprising two performance cores and four efficiency cores, delivering a 30% performance boost over the CPUs in the iPhone 15 while reducing power consumption by 30% at the same performance level. Compared to the N3B process used in the A17 Pro last year, the second-generation 3nm process offers even greater efficiency gains. The neural engine speed is twice as fast, and the memory subsystem has been upgraded with a 17% increase in bandwidth.

The rear-facing dual cameras, arranged diagonally on the back, are now back to a vertical alignment in the iPhone 16 series. The iPhone 16 standard model also benefits from the spatial capture capability previously exclusive to the Pro models. Improvements in standard model's imaging capabilities are primarily concentrated on the ultrawide lens. The aperture has been upgraded from f/2.4 to f/2.2, increasing light intake and enhancing low-light performance. It also incorporates the "macro photography" feature previously limited to Pro models.

The iPhone 16 Pro series sees an increase in overall screen size: The iPhone 16 Pro expands from 6.1 inches to 6.3 inches, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max grows from 6.7 inches to 6.9 inches. Display bezels have been further narrowed, and a new desert-colored titanium finish has been added. Beyond the screen, upgrades in the iPhone 16 Pro series focus mainly on processor performance and imaging capabilities: The main camera utilizes a 48MP "fused" camera, equipped with a second-generation