Cook Stops "Dripping Toothpaste": iPhone Gets Thinner, AI Absent
“No folding, big hype, 48MP triple cameras don't equal 200MP.” After Apple's press conference early this morning, its old rival Samsung launched its “mocking mode.”
Although there's still a sense of “over - specing,” Tim Cook showed quite a bit of sincerity this time. The four new iPhone 17 series products represent Apple's current definition of the tech industry and also hint at the possibility of future transformation.
The highlight is the new iPhone Air. It's the thinnest iPhone to date, only 5.6 mm thick and weighing 165 grams, with a starting price of $999. But it's not small; it has a 6.5 - inch screen, only slightly smaller than the previous iPhone 16 Plus. Its biggest drawback is battery life. Apple has launched a battery accessory specially designed for the iPhone Air, which can provide an additional 65% of battery power, but then the phone is no longer as thin and light.
Why does the iPhone need to be so thin and light?
One future possibility is to make technological preparations for the upcoming foldable screen.
The industry previously predicted that Apple will officially start mass - producing foldable iPhones next year. As it steps into the era of foldable phones, the thinner iPhone Air has become a mid - range product in Apple's current phone lineup. Moreover, this is the largest - scale update of the iPhone product line since the iPhone X, aiming to combine thinness, lightness, and power.
For Chinese users, the ways to use the iPhone Air are quite limited. Since the Air has removed the physical SIM card and eSIM is not yet popular in China. Currently, only China Unicom among the carriers supports eSIM, but it's still uncertain whether Unicom can benefit from the update of the iPhone Air. Many users on the Internet are complaining about the cumbersome process of activating eSIM.
Whether it's the improvement of the chip or the camera, the regular hardware upgrades are the biggest highlight of this Apple press conference. As for the long - awaited Apple Intelligence, we have to wait a bit longer. The official Apple China website still states that the launch time of Apple Intelligence depends on the approval of regulatory authorities.
Compared with manufacturers like Google and Samsung, Apple has been lagging behind in mobile AI features, but this slow progress is no longer a crisis.
At least for now, the lack of AI features is not a sufficient reason for iPhone users to switch to other phone brands. Moreover, Apple has always been promoting its privacy and security protection as one of its biggest selling points.
As for now, iOS 26, which is about to be updated in September, represents Apple's latest strength in software. Several new AI features are supported by OpenAI's ChatGPT.
At this year's WWDC, Apple admitted that many of the promises made when Apple Intelligence was launched last year have not been fulfilled. Personalized features such as Siri will not be available until next spring. Apple's explanation is that this work requires more time to meet their high - quality standards, and they look forward to sharing more relevant information next year.
Making incremental progress rather than making breakthrough innovations has been a point of criticism for Apple since it launched the Apple Watch in 2015, which also makes the outside world worry that Apple is losing its innovation advantage. Will this situation change in the near future?
Both the foldable - screen phone on the hardware side and Apple Intelligence on the software side may be showcased in 2026. That will be Apple's bumper year.
Thin and light this year, foldable next year
Every time Apple holds a press conference, industry analysts almost spoil all the details in advance.
The iPhone Air is the most - talked - about product in this press conference. Although it hasn't been confirmed by Apple, industry analysts are willing to see it as a prelude to Apple's foldable phone because in the competition with rivals like Huawei in the Chinese market, the only thing Apple lacks is a foldable iPhone.
Compared with the iPhone 17 series products, the Air is an independent phone product line. Its selling points are being thinner, lighter, and more fashionable, focusing more on the appearance design than on technical specifications.
Its unique advantage lies in being the first to use many of Apple's technologies. For example, Apple's self - developed new network wireless chip N1, the new cellular modem C1X, and the third - generation 3 - nanometer chip. This makes the Air the iPhone that uses the most Apple - developed chips to date.
To showcase the features of the iPhone Air, Apple released a beautiful video showing its durability. The scratch - resistance of the screen has been improved by 3 times, and the crack - resistance of the back glass has been improved by 4 times. John Ternus, Apple's senior vice - president of hardware engineering, even claimed in the video that it's more durable than any previous iPhone.
But the drawbacks are also obvious. Being thin means insufficient battery life.
In terms of battery life, it has the same battery life as last year's iPhone 16. But after adding the $99 ultra - thin battery accessory, users can watch videos for 40 hours, while without the battery, they can only watch for 27 hours.
Moreover, in the photo - taking function where the iPhone has always been leading, the iPhone Air lacks a 48 - megapixel ultra - wide - angle lens and only has one rear - facing camera. However, it has a new function that allows the front and rear cameras to shoot simultaneously.
The iPhone Air has something new, but overseas tech bloggers commented, “If the Air really becomes Apple's foldable phone as some people speculate, I might give up my iPhone 17 and switch to a stunning foldable iPhone. Before that, for ordinary users like me, the iPhone 17 still seems to be a more cost - effective choice.”
The biggest contribution of the iPhone Air may be to explore the technology for the foldable iPhone. The foldable iPhone is coming next year, and a foldable iPad may also appear in 2028.
All this information comes from industry analysts' revelations. They believe that Apple's foldable phone will be unveiled at next year's Apple fall press conference.
Guo Ming - chi, an analyst at TF International Securities, previously revealed that the foldable iPhone will also use the same high - density battery cells as the iPhone Air because the foldable phone is thinner and needs high - energy - density batteries to ensure battery life.
In addition, the foldable iPhone will become Apple's most high - end model. The first - generation is expected to be priced above $2000 - $2500 in the United States, and its biggest selling point is “almost no crease on the inner screen.”
The industry has high expectations for this. Although Apple's rivals Samsung and Huawei have already launched their flagship foldable - screen products, Apple's supply - chain control ability and brand influence may still redefine the product standards for foldable devices.
In the fierce competition in the Chinese mobile phone market, Apple's biggest rival, Huawei, has an obvious leading advantage. It launched its second commercial triple - foldable phone, the Mate XTs Ultimate Design, last week. Samsung will also launch its first triple - foldable phone in November this year. Samsung has always been leading in this niche market, and Samsung Display's (SDC) crease - free screen solution will also be used in Apple's foldable phone.
Against the backdrop of a slowdown in hardware innovation, the foldable screen has become the main direction for mobile phone manufacturers to attack. A larger screen and stronger performance are the trends in mobile phone evolution.
See you next year, Apple Intelligence
It's been postponed for a year. What's another half - year wait?
This may be the common mindset of Apple Intelligence users. In June last year, all the features of Apple Intelligence announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference have not been implemented. Especially the latest version of Siri is still not as good as other AI assistants. Apple's previous explanation was that it hasn't met Apple's high standards and will be available at the earliest next spring.
At this fall press conference, Apple Intelligence is still not the focus. There isn't even a single display of Apple Intelligence throughout the press conference.
In the Chinese market, it was previously decided that the Chinese - mainland version of the iPhone would cooperate with Alibaba and Baidu to implement AI features, but there's no further news. There hasn't been an updated cooperation implementation plan.
There have been many arguments questioning that Apple's AI capabilities are lagging behind Meta and Google, and this is an undeniable fact.
The most obvious aspect is the large - model capabilities. While OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other manufacturers all have their own large - language - model engines, Apple entered the game too late and needs to cooperate with third - parties to integrate AI into their operating systems and applications. The most common cooperation is with OpenAI and ChatGPT to add AI to the iOS system.
In addition, the turmoil in the team has also cast a shadow over Apple's AI. Four top AI researchers from Apple have jumped to Meta. The most well - known one is Ruoming Pang, the head of the large - model team. For this reason, Apple has raised the salaries of basic - model R & D personnel to stay competitive in the current AI talent competition.
To make up for the AI shortcoming, Apple previously considered acquiring the Perplexity AI company, but this cooperation was ultimately replaced by Google. The latest news shows that Apple has started evaluating Google's Gemini AI model and will deepen cooperation through technological synergy rather than acquisition. Google's AI model is expected to provide core technical support for Apple's new search tool.
Despite this, there are also many optimistic voices defending Apple in the US market. They believe that Apple can find a real solution in the future.
For example, Google has integrated many AI application capabilities into the Android system, but it hasn't improved user satisfaction. The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index survey shows that the satisfaction of Samsung users with Android smartphones has decreased by 1% compared to a year ago. The satisfaction of Google and Motorola Android phones has both decreased by 3%.
But the survey also found that the satisfaction of iPhone users has decreased by 1%. This means that whether or not there are cool new AI features, it won't affect ordinary users' views of mobile phones.
The expectations for Apple Intelligence are too high, but the fulfillment is insufficient. However, this is not a crisis for Apple. Apple doesn't have to do everything and doesn't have to be involved in all fields like Internet companies. This is the view conveyed by Apple's vice - president of software engineering to the outside world.
“I think Apple has made the Internet more accessible in many ways than anyone else, which has greatly enhanced our customers and our products. But that doesn't mean that every experience you may have must happen within Apple.”
The underlying meaning is that just like with Internet services, users use ride - hailing services through their iPhones without questioning why Apple doesn't develop a ride - hailing product. That is, AI will change the way we use mobile phones, but it doesn't mean that Apple has to lead the development of AI for iPhone and Mac users to benefit greatly.
In September, Apple's iOS 26 is about to be released, and features such as real - time translation and group - chat upgrades will showcase a series of more intelligent product - design experiences, but this is far from the AI capabilities expected by the outside world.
Fundamentally, Apple's real advantage lies in privacy protection, which is the core focus of Apple's AI development. It requires that all phone services should be completed on the user's device rather than on remote cloud services, which limits the scale and complexity of AI features. When remote cloud services are needed, Apple Intelligence processes them in an encrypted way, and OpenAI in the phone doesn't even allow the storage of user - submitted queries.
Technological security is more important than technological leadership. After all, Apple serves over 2.3 billion devices globally. The requirement for the lower limit of AI security is far more important than the exploration of the upper limit of AI capabilities.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Bluehole Business” (ID: value_creation), author: Zhao Weiwei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.