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Late at night on August 26, Apple sent out invitations to users around the world, officially announcing the time of the 2024 autumn conference: 1 a.m. Beijing time on September 10. Judging from the content of the invitation, Apple AI and screen upgrades (highlight moments) should be the core themes of this conference. Apple's iPhone, MacBook, AirPods, Apple Watch and other product lines have all ushered in updates.

It is worth mentioning that the content of this press conference is a video broadcast "recorded" in Apple Park in advance, rather than a real live broadcast, which is also the usual practice of Apple's autumn press conference led by Cook in recent years. At that time, Lei Technology will broadcast this major event in the technology and digital industry live, and send a luxurious lineup to conduct special reports, and provide professional, three-dimensional and in-depth interpretations as soon as possible. Please pay attention.

Among the many new products released at Apple's fall conference this year, the most anticipated one is the iPhone 16 series. However, the information about the iPhone 16 series has been leaked, and Lei Technology has been continuously leaking information for more than a year. Overall, Apple fans don't have to have too high expectations. The new generation of iPhones is still squeezing toothpaste, "strictly hierarchical", and "Cook's knife method". Compared with the iPhone 15 series, the appearance has hardly changed, the imaging hardware is poor, and the overall configuration has not been greatly upgraded. The biggest selling point is that the entire series is equipped with 8GB of memory as standard, and a separate photo button has been added.

Due to its mediocre hardware, the iPhone 16 has to focus on "Apple Intelligent". However, due to its lack of core AI technology and high reliance on third-party AI, the effect will not be very ideal, especially in the Chinese market, how Apple AI will land is full of suspense.

This year's Apple autumn conference is likely to be a watershed: the iPhone will further lose market share, and the uncertainty of whether Apple can continue to maintain its position as the "number one" in the AI ​​era will further increase. At the brand level, Apple will also officially step down from the altar.

iPhone 16 series is a small upgrade

Previously, many overseas professional bloggers have come out to give a "vaccination" to this new product, saying that this generation of iPhone is only a transitional product and will not bring major updates. Since the iPhone 14 series, Apple's progress has been very slow. If this generation of iPhone does not consider a major update, it may lose a lot of users.

(Image source: 9to5mac)

The iPhone 15 series, which Apple had high hopes for, could not escape the fate of breaking the price on the first day after its release. Ultimately, Apple’s "shell-changing magic" failed. When consumers are no longer attracted by the so-called new materials and new technologies, the iPhone 15 series naturally lost its natural advantages.

Judging from the latest leaked information, the iPhone 16 series has not only failed to change its past mistakes, but is instead Apple’s worst generation yet.

In terms of hardware, the standard version of iPhone 16/Plus only upgrades the SoC to A18, upgrades the rear lens to dual 48-megapixel lenses, and changes the arrangement from diagonal to vertical, while the rest basically maintains the previous generation solution. The iPhone 16 Pro replaces the 3X upright telephoto lens with a 5x periscope lens, which is the same as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and is larger in size with a slightly increased battery capacity.

(Image source: 9to5Mac)

Bloomberg chief reporter Mark Gurman believes that the focus of Apple's promotion of the iPhone 16 series this year is the independent camera button, which can quickly start the camera and act as a shutter and start/end button for recording videos. To put it bluntly, this camera button is already an abandoned hardware solution in the Android camp.

Android is gearing up to take away Apple's market share

Rivals in the Android camp are also gearing up to snatch away iPhone users while Apple is still preparing its big move. Digital Chat Station revealed on the social platform that OPPO will add support for more magnetic accessories to the next generation of Find series flagship phones, including magnetic chargers, phone cases, card holders, etc. Combined with the previous revelation that ColorOS 15 will add "fruity" features such as AirDrop and Live Photo, is OPPO determined to snatch away iPhone users?

Previously, the predecessors of Xiaomi Mi 15 and Xiaomi Mi 15 Pro snatched away a large number of iPhone users, just because they occupied the exclusive "small-screen flagship" positioning in the market, especially the standard version of the Xiaomi digital series. According to official data, the cumulative sales of this model alone have exceeded 2 million units. In the second half of this year, OPPO Find X8 and vivo X200 series will enter the market with the positioning of "small-screen flagship". By then, the small-screen advantage of iPhone will no longer exist.

(Photo source: Weibo)

As a "small-screen flagship", although the iPhone 16 Pro uses periscope telephoto for the first time, its sensor area is small and the pixels are low, which is far from the current large-bottom, high-pixel periscope solutions. Of course, Apple's attitude towards the "Pro" series models is to hope that it will become a more professional imaging tool, which can stay away from the needs of mass consumers and will only push itself away from the mainstream market.

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst who pays close attention to Apple, revealed that Apple wants to use Apple Intelligent as the core promotional highlight of the iPhone 16 series, but Apple AI's policy in countries/regions other than the United States is still unclear, especially in mainland China. As a result, the only promotional point of the iPhone 16 series in the Chinese mainland market seems to be the not-so-great camera button.

(Image source: MacRumors)

It is not difficult to see that Apple's slowdown in innovation is not only reflected in the conservative update of hardware configuration, but also in the lag in function development. For example, the changes in the iPhone 16 series are only the addition of a camera button and the increase in size of the two models in the Pro series, but these solutions can only be regarded as "anti-trend" designs that go against the general trend. Can Apple still lead a new design trend now? It seems a bit difficult.

Objectively speaking, the serious loss of iPhone users is actually more related to Apple's inaction. As consumers, users will naturally choose products that are more suitable for them and spend money to support them. In the past, Apple's trick was to use system features and ecosystems to bind users. Now that Android brands have added new features to compete with iOS, I am afraid that in the next flagship war, Apple's advantage will no longer exist.

After so many successful attempts, is Apple's "ecosystem bundling" about to become ineffective?

As a user of the Apple ecosystem for many years, Xiao Lei was also impressed by this complete workflow, such as AirDrop and cloud synchronization, which are classic examples of multi-device collaboration in the Apple ecosystem.

At the 2023 vivo Developer Conference, vivo launched the "vivo office suite", a cross-end synchronization application. This suite can support installation on mobile, Windows, and Mac platforms, realize file transfer, end-to-end control, and even support cross-end search.

(Image source: vivo)

The launch of this suite is undoubtedly a historic moment to break Apple's "ecological bundling". It completely replaces the cross-device advantage that originally only existed between Mac and iOS with a small application. Vivo's approach is very smart. It knows that many iPhone users choose to stick to the iOS camp because they do not want to lose the advantage of interconnection with MacBook. Indeed, MacBook is the only choice for most office workers. Therefore, Vivo took the lead in breaking the ecological dilemma and helping more users with such troubles to "escape from the sea of ​​suffering."

This approach also enabled vivo to rank first in the domestic market for 19 consecutive weeks in the first half of 2024, and it gained a lot of new users switching from iPhone.

In addition to vivo, OPPO has also begun to target the special feature on the iPhone - LivePhoto.

Live Photo is an exclusive feature released by Apple with iPhone 6S in 2015. Its principle is to record a 45-frame, 3-second video while taking a photo. When the user views the photo in the gallery, the relevant video will be played automatically. This type of photo is also called "dynamic photo" or "live photo".

(Photo source: OPPO)

In fact, dynamic photos were already a standard feature in the early Android camp. HTC, Samsung, and Xiaomi were among the first mobile phone brands that could take dynamic photos. But the iPhone can not only take photos, but also share and publish them, which is its advantage. OPPO took the lead in supporting the sharing of dynamic photos on the Xiaohongshu platform on the Reno 12 series, and after the arrival of ColorOS 15, this feature will also be open to most models.

In addition to dynamic photos, OPPO also plans to support features such as AirDrop, magnetic charging, Smart Island, and global AOD in ColorOS 15. The purpose is also clear: to allow iPhone users to transition to the OPPO ecosystem more smoothly.

(Photo source: Weibo)

In fact, these exclusive functions may not be the core functions of the iPhone, but they are indeed the few functions with excellent market reputation. It is not difficult for the Android camp to realize these functions, but practical factors such as patents and platform adaptation have hindered the development of functions. Now that manufacturers have joined hands with social platforms to promote function adaptation, the advantages of iPhone are not so obvious.

The decisive battle between Apple and Android has arrived. Has the winner been decided?

According to the rhythm of previous years, the iPhone 16 series should be released in mid-September and officially go on sale at the end of September. Unfortunately, the speed of new product launches of Android flagships is also accelerating this year. According to leaked information, some manufacturers will launch a new generation of flagship series as early as October. No one expected that the weakest generation of iPhone would face the strongest generation of Android.

This year's first batch of Android flagships are likely to be the Xiaomi 15 series, iQOO 13, OnePlus 13, OPPO Find X8 series and vivo X200 series. Among them, the vivo and OPPO standard versions equipped with MediaTek Dimensity 9400 will be on the market earlier, while the large or super large models equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 mobile platform are expected to go on sale in November.

The situation this year is quite dramatic. Apple's iPhone 16 series, which is considered the "weakest generation", will face the flagship models of the Android camp, which are hailed as the "strongest generation". For consumers, this confrontation undoubtedly increases the difficulty and diversity of choices, but it also highlights the pressure on Apple to innovate.

(Image source: MacRumors)

Looking at the entire market landscape, Apple seems to be facing an unprecedented challenge. If Apple cannot bring enough surprising improvements to the iPhone 16 series, then this year's showdown may cause more high-end users to flow to the Android camp. For Android manufacturers, this is a great opportunity. With technological leadership and faster product iterations, they are expected to further expand their share in the high-end market and even change Apple's long-standing dominance.

Apple is also facing challenges from its own ecosystem being seriously “invaded”. For example, Xiaomi has seized some of the small-screen enthusiasts’ market with its small-screen flagship positioning, while vivo and OPPO have launched software offensives to allow more Mac users to choose Android phones other than iPhones. As for Honor and Huawei, they use smoothness that exceeds iOS and amazing system-level AI to provide a more comfortable user experience.

In any case, the iPhone is still the "leader" in the current mobile phone market, but the backward hardware and the compromised software ecosystem have also laid a huge hidden danger for Apple. Is there any big trick in the iPhone 16 series that has not been leaked? Can Apple make a comeback? All this may have to wait until Apple's autumn new product launch conference to be revealed.