Apple needs to show AI gadgets aren’t a bust
Apple needs to convince people to upgrade to the latest iPhones and prove to Wall Street that an iPhone upgrade cycle is underway. One way it’ll try that is with Apple Intelligence, which the company announced in June. It’s AI that customers can use to generate emoji, email messages, notes and more. It’ll tap into OpenAI’s ChatGPT, too. Some of those features won’t launch until the end of the year, though, and AI gadgets have, so far, been a bust.
Apple’s iPhone sales declined 1% year over year to $39.29 billion during the company’s fiscal third quarter, or about 46% of the company’s total sales. “On a constant currency basis, we grew year on year. And so that’s sort of how we look at it from an operational point of view,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach in June, noting that Apple has “redeployed a lot of people to AI that were working on other things” and that Apple increased spending for AI and Apple Intelligence.
— Todd Haselton and Steve Kovach
Apple analyst Kuo says these are the two most important things to watch for today
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the two most important things to watch on Monday are iPhone pricing and Apple Intelligence availability. The iPhone Pro has had the same $999 starting price in the U.S. since 2017 but the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max had a $100 price increase over the iPhone 14 Pro Max. At least it came with twice the storage. Apple Intelligence is currently in a preview beta version and some of its best improvements, like a smarter Siri, are expected later this year or next.
There’s a ‘Free Speech Area’
I noticed this “Free Speech Area” sign on my way in. Past Apple events have drawn protests ranging from the company’s China policy to how it handles child sexual abuse material (CSAM.) In June, for example, CSAM demonstrators showed up at the company’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. And protestors staged a hunger strike outside the Apple Park visitor’s center in December 2022 to speak out against changes that limited Apple AirDrop in China.
— Kif Leswing
We’re here heading to Steve Jobs Theater where the iPhone event will take place
We just arrived at Apple’s Cupertino campus and we’re walking over to the Steve Jobs Theater. It’s where Apple typically announces new iPhones on its campus, in contrast to events like the Worldwide Developer’s Conference that’s held outside. It’s a cloudy day.
Update: It’s no longer cloudy. That’s California weather for you.
— Kif Leswing
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