iPhone may not offer serious AI performance until 2027
Apple Intelligence features are expected to be available with the iOS 18.1 update by the end of the month. The iPhone 16 series and iPhone 15 Pro models will get as many as six artificial intelligence (AI) features when the update is released. These features are powered by both the Cupertino-based tech giant’s internal large language models and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, an analyst from a major financial firm has claimed that smartphones may not be able to deliver ‘serious AI’ performance in the next two to three years.
Apple Intelligence may not reach peak performance until 2027
The comments came from Edison Lee, an analyst at Jeffries, a US-based multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. Citing analyst The Street reported that the Apple Intelligence features, in its current form, may not be enough to significantly boost sales of the iPhone 16 series.
This goes against the predictions of several industry veterans who claimed that the AI features would trigger a purchasing “supercycle” for the recently released smartphone series, which is usually seen when a breakthrough feature or hardware upgrade is introduced in a smartphone introduced. However, the publications claimed that demand for the iPhone 16 series has not increased significantly despite the fact that no other iPhone apart from this year’s release and last year’s Pro models can support Apple Intelligence.
Lee reportedly added that the reason why Apple Intelligence is not sufficient in its current state is that the iPhone hardware needs to be reworked before it is able to handle more advanced AI capabilities.
However, the analyst also believes that the tech giant’s AI offering could beat the competition in the long run, as “Apple is the only hardware-software integrated player that can use proprietary data to deliver low-cost, personalized AI services offer.” the publication quoted Lee as saying.
In late October, the iOS 18.1 update will add several new Apple Intelligence features to compatible iPhone devices. These are expected to include writing tools that can generate text based on prompts, notification summaries that summarize the less important notifications, cleaning in photos, a new notification priority feature, reminders in photos, and new capabilities for Siri.
