(CNN) – At the beginning of the year, Apple excited its fans with its artificial intelligence system “Apple Intelligence”. Now it’s time to prove that it works.
The company is set to unveil the first line of iPhones built specifically for generative artificial intelligence (allowing users to create text and images) during its annual hardware event, which begins Monday at 1 p.m. ET. You can see the live stream here.
The event was announced with the cryptic tagline of “it’s time to shine,” but Apple has so far said nothing about what it means.
Apple is facing a lot of pressure ahead of the event to prove that the iPhone 16’s new AI features and other upgrades are worth the effort. Apple also needs to convince investors that it has not been left behind in the AI race, as its rivals have already launched similar features with the new technology.
Since the launch of the iPhone 12 with 5G connectivity in 2020, the company has given users few interesting reasons to buy the latest model. Phone cameras have greatly advanced to the point where they are sufficient for most people’s everyday needs without major hardware changes, and at some point the human eye is not even able to perceive higher screen resolutions. high.
As a result, iPhone sales, which account for half of the company’s revenue, have been weak.
The company’s stock had also been relatively stagnant until the unveiling of Apple Intelligence, a sign that investors are counting on AI to convince people to buy new iPhones. Apple shares are up 14% since the June 10 event and nearly 18% since the beginning of the year.
If Apple gets it right, it could cash in: About 300 million iPhones worldwide haven’t been updated in more than four years, according to a research note by investment firm Wedbush analyst Dan Ives last month.
So, although Apple is likely to highlight changes to various products and services such as AirPods or even Apple TV+ on Monday, “everything revolves around the iPhone update cycle, everything else is secondary,” Gil told CNN. Luria, analyst at DA Davidson.
Secondary or protagonist, this is all we expect from the Apple event.
The company has already hinted at some of the things Apple Intelligence will be able to do: enable more natural conversations with Siri, help compose emails, make it easier to find specific moments in photo albums and incorporate users’ personal information into their answers. The company’s task on Monday will be to show iPhone users what that will look like in real life.
“Expect to see demonstrations of how, within your text string, you can get summaries,” Luria said. “You will know why Tiffany M has had a fight with Tiffany R, and you will be able to ask it within the chat and get an answer. “That’s the kind of thing that will get people excited…showing some concrete examples of how people will be able to use Apple Intelligence to do things they couldn’t do before.”
And while it’s not unusual for new iPhones to receive an updated processor chip, that change may be especially important this year to ensure the iPhone 16 can handle the increased data processing needs that will come with new AI features without compromising performance. battery life.
Luria added that he thinks there could also be a subtle change to the iPhone’s appearance, such as a wider screen or updated edges, “to get the point of an update cycle.”
“Something different about the new iPhones that communicates to consumers that ‘I have the new iPhone and you don’t,’ which hasn’t been the case for the last four years,” he said.
The iPhone 16 will also feature a dedicated camera button, according to a report by Mark Gurmanfrom Bloomberg.
One of the big unknowns ahead of Monday’s event is how Apple will set the price of the iPhone 16 range. In the last four years, the launch price of the new iPhones has been $799.
Apple enthusiasts have been debating for years whether iPhone models should be cheaper, while investors would prefer to get the maximum profit.
Many analysts, including CFRA Research’s Angelo Zino, say Apple could modestly raise prices “across the board” for the iPhone range due to the new AI features and the cost to the company of offering them.
However, it is almost certain that it will not be a significant increase because “they don’t want to lose (customers’) enthusiasm due to the price shock,” Luria said.
It is rumored that Apple could also announce updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods.
The Apple Watch Series 10 is expected to be thinner than its predecessors, but with a larger screen, and the company is also set to launch new low- and mid-range AirPods offerings, Gurman reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.
These updates would follow new software offerings for both devices that Apple announced at its annual developer conference in June.
AirPods users will be able to answer or reject a call with a simple movement of the head. And the Apple Watch’s new vital signs tracking system will be able to alert users when they are sick, based on signals such as body temperature and heart rate.
-Samantha Kelly and Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.
