"Making the biggest leap in iPhone history"
Apple CEO Tim Cook said this as he unveiled the new iPhone 17 lineup on the 9th (local time). The added "iPhone Air" and the iPhone 17 family pack Apple's latest technologies from software to hardware. But as the market expected, few of the features Apple highlighted that day could be called artificial intelligence (AI) innovations.
That day at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, Apple introduced the iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, and AirPods 3 Pro. The lineup ranges from the iPhone Air, at 5.6 mm the thinnest iPhone ever, to the standard iPhone 17 models, Pro, and Pro Max.
During the roughly 1 hour and 15 minute presentation, Apple offered almost no explanation about improvements to its AI feature "Apple Intelligence." In particular, there was no mention of a "personalized Siri." Apple Intelligence is widely viewed as still at a basic stage. According to Apple, Apple Intelligence offers writing, summarization, generative AI images, live translation, visual search, and Genmoji, among other features.
Instead, Apple focused the presentation on its next-generation chips and enhanced camera features. The front camera features the first-ever square front camera sensor on an iPhone. For photos, it supports up to 18 million pixels. You can also shoot photos and videos in both portrait and landscape modes while holding the iPhone vertically. For group selfies, the "Center Stage" feature uses AI to automatically expand the field of view, and you can shoot photos with a landscape field of view even in portrait mode. On the back, a 48-megapixel lens is installed across the board.
Apple also equipped the iPhone 17 lineup with the A19 chip built on a third-generation 3-nanometer process. The 6-core CPU is 1.5 times faster than the A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 13, and the 5-core GPU delivers twice the speed of the A15 Bionic. A neural accelerator on each GPU core enables powerful on-device generative AI models to run directly on the device.
However, with Cook and other Apple presenters avoiding explanations of Apple Intelligence or Siri, the market reaction was cool. The few functions mentioned had all already been announced at WWDC in June. Immediately after the product event, Apple's shares fell 1.5%.
Some say Apple may abandon developing its own model and instead partner with a competitor. According to Bloomberg, Apple is considering overhauling Siri early next year by running the Gemini model on Apple's servers.
TechCrunch said, "There is growing concern that Apple's 'misstep' in its AI response strategy will hurt its standing in the industry and its future success," adding, "By contrast, Google last month launched the Pixel 10 with AI capabilities front and center, while iPhone users are still waiting for AI Siri, which has been delayed to 2026."
The New York Times, citing Thomas Husson, a technology analyst at the research firm Forrester, said, "The incremental innovation approach Apple showed with the iPhone 17 risks reaching its limits," adding, "Especially for consumers who crave more innovation."