Apple Marketed Its New iPhones As a Best-In-Class Hardware, Not As an AI Device Maker [Video]

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IBL News
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IBL News | New York

Through a splashy event yesterday, Apple introduced its newest iPhones: the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and a sleek, lightweight, and slimmer version, the iPhone Air, [in the picture above], 5.6 mm with a 6.5-inch display device.

The Air’s price point of $999 is 22% more expensive than the 17 base model, which starts at $799. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099.

At Apple’s event, the audience witnessed that the company continues to market itself as a best-in-class hardware maker first, not an AI device maker.

The most compelling use of AI was the Live Translation feature coming to AirPods 3. Priced at $249, AirPods 3 feature live translation technology, powered by Apple Intelligence, to help users translate foreign languages in real time.

Beyond the AirPods, AI technology has received only minor upgrades, mostly to its front camera. There was no mention of Siri.

To date, Apple has only released a baseline of AI features, such as AI writing tools, summarization, generative AI images, live translation, visual search, and Genmoji.

Sources said that Apple is still looking to outsource some technology to Google Gemini to catch up in the AI race.

Meanwhile, Google last month rolled out its latest release of an AI-powered Android phone with its Pixel 10.

TechCrunch wrote that “today’s iPhone owners often swap out Apple’s technology for Google’s by opting for Gmail, Google Drive and Docs, Google Maps, and Chrome over Apple’s own apps like Mail, its iWork suite, Apple Maps, and Safari, for example. When people search the web, they turn to Google’s Search app, not Apple’s built-in Spotlight search, despite its many integrations over the years to offer basic facts and answers, leveraging sources like Wikipedia.”

The company conveyed that the look and feel of updated iPhones, along with their hardware advancements, will continue to drive sales, enabling Apple to incorporate quality, camera improvements, privacy-preserving technology, intentional software design changes like Liquid Retina, and now, super-thin phones.