With the imminent release of the iPhone 17, Apple's chips have been fully exposed: All for AI?

It's almost time for the annual release of new iPhones again.

Just yesterday, a suspected invitation to Apple's fall product launch event was leaked on the X platform, indicating that this year's fall product launch will be held at 10 a.m. local time on September 9th (1 a.m. Beijing time on September 10th) at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, the company's headquarters. The event theme, "Futurebound," a newly - coined word, can probably be translated as "bound for the future" or "journey to the future."

Although the information about the time, location, and theme is within the realm of normal expectations, considering that Apple usually sends out invitations in late August and the account that leaked the invitation quickly deleted its profile on the X platform, the authenticity of this event information remains uncertain.

In contrast, some codes in Apple's latest beta system have almost revealed all the chip information of its upcoming important products. This can be regarded as one of the biggest leaks in Apple's history, debunking some previous rumors and confirming some speculations.

Image source: X

Take the upcoming iPhone 17 series as an example. Aaron Perris, a researcher at MacRumors, has basically confirmed that the iPhone 17 Air and the subsequent iPhone 17e will be equipped with Apple's self - developed Apple C1 baseband chip. Meanwhile, the main chip of the next - generation Vision Pro will be upgraded from the M2 to the M5.

In addition, Apple has taken chip cost - sharing to the extreme. Except for the iPhone 17 Pro, which will use the A19 Pro, the next - generation Studio Display and iPad mini will also be equipped with the A19 Pro chip designed for mobile phones. Considering that there will be an entry - level MacBook equipped with the A18 Pro this year, it's possible that the A19 Pro will also be introduced into the MacBook product line next year.

Official Leak: No Secrets Left for Apple's Chips

Although the release date of September 9th has not been confirmed, considering that Apple's fall product launches usually take place in the second or third week of September, there is less than a month left until the event. The information in the system code has almost removed all the suspense about the chip layout of the iPhone 17 series.

The iPhone 17 Pro / Pro Max will be the first to feature the A19 Pro, continuing the strategy of leading with chips in the Pro series. The A19 Pro is expected to undergo a full - scale upgrade in the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine (NPU), especially in AI inference capabilities, to support the higher local computing requirements of Apple Intelligence's new features.

According to the code information, following the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 17 Air and the iPhone 17e, which will be released as a supplementary model in the spring of next year, will continue to be equipped with Apple's self - developed Apple C1 baseband, further reducing the dependence on Qualcomm's baseband. Conversely, other models in the iPhone 17 series may not switch from Qualcomm's baseband to Apple's own baseband for the time being.

However, the reason why Apple has not further expanded the use of the C1 baseband may not be due to technical factors. According to the "three - year agreement" signed between Apple and Qualcomm in 2023, we may not see all iPhone models using Apple's self - developed C - series baseband chips until 2027.

Image source: Apple

The significance of the C1 is not only about controllable cost and user experience. Equally important is that it forms a unified solution for power consumption optimization and latency control with Apple's self - developed Wi - Fi/ Bluetooth chip.

As previously reported by Lei Technology, Apple's code has once again confirmed that the new Apple TV to be released this year will not only be equipped with the same A17 Pro chip as the iPhone 15 Pro but also will feature Apple's self - developed Wi - Fi/ Bluetooth chip for the first time. At present, the key to this round of Apple TV upgrades is not only for better picture quality and gaming but also to make the Apple TV the central node of home Apple Intelligence, running more AI functions on the big screen and enhancing the multi - device collaboration experience.

Moreover, it has been confirmed that the new HomePod mini will be equipped with the T8310 core, the same as the S9/S10 (used in Apple Watch). It is speculated that it will share the S11 with the next - generation Apple Watch. In any case, it is certain that the processor performance and energy efficiency of the new HomePod mini will be much better than those of the S5 chip. According to previous information, the new HomePod mini is also likely to use Apple's self - developed Wi - Fi/ Bluetooth chip, supporting Wi - Fi 6E.

In addition to the above new products expected to be released this year, there is also a major product that will be released as early as the end of this year, which is the next - generation Vision Pro. Different from the previous report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that it would be equipped with the M4 chip, the latest code information shows that the next - generation Vision Pro will be directly upgraded from the previous M2 chip to the M5 chip using TSMC's N3P process.

Considering the news that Mike Rockwell, the person in charge of Vision Pro, has taken over the development of the new Siri, it may be that the Vision Pro is accelerating in rendering, spatial perception, and AI computing simultaneously. Perhaps the next - generation will see a major upgrade in interaction.

Mike Rockwell, Image source: Apple

Furthermore, the A - series chips originally designed for iPhones are becoming increasingly important in the Apple Silicon landscape. According to the code information, in addition to the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro, it has been confirmed that the new - generation Studio Display and iPad mini, which will be released as early as next spring, will also use this mobile SoC.

Apple used to prefer to customize different versions of processors for large - sized devices, but now it is clearly trying to reduce costs by unifying the chip platform and making the product update rhythm more flexible. Considering that there is an entry - level MacBook equipped with the A18 Pro this year, it is possible that the A19 Pro will also be directly introduced into the MacBook product line next year, further blurring the boundary between the A - series and M - series.

All for AI? Three Signals from Apple's Chips

If you only look at the list of new products in the code leak, you may think it is a "high - information" spoiler. But when you put these scattered models, chips, and release times together, you can actually find some hidden signals, which are also the changes that Apple Silicon is undergoing.

Firstly, the boundary of the A - series is being deliberately blurred. In the past, the A - series was exclusive to iPhones and some iPads, while the M - series was a symbol of high - performance devices such as Macs, iPad Pros, and Vision Pros. However, from the arrangements in the past two years, this boundary has been intentionally broken:

The A19 Pro will be used not only in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPad mini but also directly in large - screen devices like the Studio Display. This year's entry - level MacBook is expected to be equipped with the A18 Pro, and it may be upgraded to the A19 Pro next year.

The logic behind this is, on the one hand, to reduce design and verification costs and increase the scale of mass production by unifying the architecture. Secondly, using a single chip across multiple product categories allows Apple to more flexibly control the product update rhythm. For example, using the chips from new iPhones to quickly update a batch of non - flagship product lines can reduce latency and stabilize performance.

Image source: Apple

In the long run, this integration may gradually eliminate the concepts of "mobile chips" and "desktop chips" within the Apple ecosystem, leaving only Apple Silicon with different sizes and power consumption levels.

Secondly, Apple is getting rid of its dependence on Qualcomm and Broadcom to build a closed - loop wireless technology system.

In addition to the Apple C2 baseband under development and testing, the new Apple TV and HomePod mini will be the first to feature Apple's self - developed new Wi - Fi/ Bluetooth chips. Their common feature is that network connectivity is crucial for the user experience, and their hardware structures are relatively simple, facilitating large - scale testing.

The core battlefield of these two new "self - developed chip" lines is, of course, not just TV boxes and smart speakers. Once core devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Macs are switched to self - developed basebands and connectivity chips, Apple can unify the wireless protocol stack across the entire ecosystem and have the potential to transform latency, power consumption, and stability at the underlying level.

The key is that getting rid of the dependence on Qualcomm and Broadcom not only means supply - chain independence but also provides Apple with unique optimization space for multi - device collaboration.

Image source: Apple

Imagine that when AirPods, Macs, Apple Watches, HomePods, and Apple TVs all run on the same self - developed wireless architecture, seamless cross - device switching, low - latency screen mirroring, and even local AI computing task distribution can be completed with almost no delay. This "underlying closed - loop" is one of the most solid infrastructures in Apple's ecosystem, both in the past, present, and future.

Thirdly, and most crucially, the hardware threshold for Apple Intelligence is being lowered.

Whether it's the A19 Pro in the new Studio Display or the A17 Pro in the Apple TV, the significance goes beyond just performance improvement. The A17 Pro has sufficient AI acceleration performance to directly run Apple's new - generation local AI functions, which marks that Apple Intelligence is no longer a "privilege" of core computing devices such as iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks but is starting to spread to more product categories and price segments.

The most direct evidence is that the minimum requirement for hardware devices to support Apple Intelligence is to be equipped with the A17 Pro.

Image source: Apple

This lowering of the threshold, on the one hand, can lay the "computing power baseline" for running Apple Intelligence through hardware upgrades in advance, ensuring that as many existing and new devices as possible can be covered when new functions are released in the future. On the other hand, it extends the AI hub from a single device to the entire home or office space. For example, it can make the Apple TV one of the AI interaction centers and the HomePod the AI voice interaction entrance for the whole house.

It can be predicted that the iteration of Apple Intelligence will be accompanied by the deployment of chips with certain local AI capabilities on more non - core computing devices of Apple, enabling them not only to receive instructions but also to perform local autonomous execution, analysis, and even decision - making to a certain extent.

Conclusion

From the iPhone 17 to the Vision Pro, and then to the Apple TV and HomePod mini, the content leaked from the system code has almost laid out Apple's chip landscape for the next one or two years. Although it seems to be just chip information for a few new products, it actually reflects Apple's layout in product line integration, self - developed underlying technologies, and AI popularization.

It is certain that future Apple Silicon will no longer be just a performance label for a single product but may become the "invisible operating system" of the entire ecosystem, supporting the continuous evolution of hardware forms, interaction methods, and usage scenarios. As for how much this evolution will change users' daily experiences, Apple will need to provide the answer.