Apple CEO Tim Cook at an iPhone 15 launch event at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store (Photo by Alexi … [+]
Next week, Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where it will showcase several AI-based tools that will power the iPhone 16 family when the handsets launch in September. Many of these tools will be available on older iPhones, but only the iPhone 15 Pro will make full use of them.
Writing in Bloomberg, longtime Apple watcher Mark Gurman notes that only the current iPhone 15 Pro will be able to leverage the full suite of AI tools.
The likely reason is the A17 Pro chipset inside the Pro models. This is Apple’s latest Axx mobile chipset, and it’s notable that Apple underpowered the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus models using the then-old A16 chipset. The added power of the A17 Pro’s Neural engine, along with faster CPU and GPU cores, will be needed to run on-device LLMs and productive AI routines.
Even then, the iPhone 16 Pro models will see the updated A18 Pro chipset. And if Apple has made the same decisions as Qualcomm and Samsung, the A18 will have silicon specifically designed to support AI-intensive routines. While the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max may have enough power in the A17 to match the A18, the lower-spec vanilla models will likely be left out in the cold.
There may be an option to offload some AI routines to the cloud. This is the approach taken by a number of Android manufacturers looking for more extensive AI processes or offering AI capabilities on lower-end hardware. If that’s the case, expect Apple to lean heavily on the implications of AI in the cloud and how Apple will be able to mitigate that risk.
I’m sure Apple would prefer that users consider the other option, buying a new handset specifically to upgrade to an AI-enabled handset.
Artificial intelligence means many things to many people, but one of the biggest boons for the smartphone industry is the need for new hardware to deliver capable solutions. Apple will undoubtedly focus on artificial intelligence – a spin that is likely to focus on supporting the user with summaries, better images, natural responses from Siri and more precise image processing – but the underlying unit will echo the competition… if you will one of the first AI smartphones, you’ll need to buy a new handset.
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