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if ai becomes a futures product, how can we attract users to maintain their enthusiasm for new products? apple has given its own answer on the iphone 16 series - adding a new camera control button.

the iphone 16 series was officially released at 12:00 am beijing time on september 10.the apple intelligence function that the outside world is looking forward to will not only be launched in batches, but also will be pushed to different countries and regions in stages.

in order to divert users' dissatisfaction with ai functions, the iphone 16 series has an exclusive camera control button on the right side, which can be used to take photos and record videos through different touch methods. just like the smart island on the iphone 14 series, the camera control button is expected to become the biggest selling point of the iphone 16.

it is worth noting thatafter the release on september 20, users who purchased the iphone 16 series products in advance will not be able to experience apple's smart phones for the first time.you have to wait until the official system update in october to officially get started, and the functions you can experience at that time will be limited to basic ai such as email assisted writing and notification summaries brought by writing tools. if you want to experience more powerful apple intelligence such as intelligent siri integrated into chatgpt and generation of personalized pictures, you have to wait until the end of this year or even next year.

according to the official plan, apple smartphone will only support american english after it is launched on iphone and other devices in october. it will be expanded to localized english in australia, canada, new zealand, south africa and the united kingdom in december, and will be available inmore languages ​​including chinese, french, japanese, spanish, etc. will be supported next year.

the limited changes in appearance and the lack of ai functions have attracted complaints from bloomberg technology writer mark gurman, who believes that the iphone 16 may not help apple achieve the imagined "super replacement cycle". in comparison, the iphone 17, which will be launched next year, will be a product that can better stimulate users to change their phones.

by then, the apple smartphone on iphone 17 will be more complete and available in more regions around the world. more importantly,the iphone 17 will also bring a real upgrade driver - a brand new appearance design.some analysts predict that the iphone 17 will adopt a new slim body design and improve the camera design.

in addition to the new iphone 17,apple may also launch the next generation iphone se next year.according to ming-chi kuo, a well-known apple product analyst, the next-generation iphone se will be released in the first quarter of 2025. it is expected to adopt an appearance design similar to the iphone 14, equipped with the same a18 chip and 8gb cache as the iphone 16 to support the operation of apple smartphones.

the iphone 16 series, which lacks highlights, is also facing another blockade from its rival huawei. this afternoon, huawei will launch the world's first three-fold new phone, and the number of reservations on the official website has exceeded 2 million.

in contrast, apple claimed in a recent media report about foldable screens that it has completed the research and development of the foldable iphone internally and is working with suppliers to prepare for mass production, but the product will not be released until 2026 at the earliest.

apple, which is caught in internal and external troubles, has once again put the purchasing power of its fans to the test.

although there was no surprise, i felt a little relieved.the iphone 16 series has not seen a price increase due to configuration upgrades.the four models, iphone 16, 16 plus, 16 pro and 16 pro max, have starting prices of 5,999 yuan, 6,999 yuan, 7,999 yuan and 9,999 yuan respectively (continuing the iphone 15 series, the 128gb version of pro max is cancelled).

the appearance of the non-pro version of the iphone 16 has not changed much. it still has a 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen. it is also not adapted to the adaptive refresh rate technology of up to 120hz, and does not have an all-weather display.

the changes are that the rear dual cameras have been changed from a diagonal arrangement to a vertical arrangement, and the action button on the pro model has been decentralized. now, iphone 16 and iphone 16 plus users can also choose between turning on the camera, flashlight, or switching between ringing and silent modes by pressing the action button on the left.

the biggest changes still come from the pro series.the screen sizes of iphone 16 pro and pro max have increased from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches to 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches respectively. however, with the bezels narrowed by about 1/3, the overall look and feel of the two pro models are basically the same size as the standard version.

in addition, on the iphone 16 pro series, its ultra-wide-angle camera has been upgraded from 12 million pixels to 48 million pixels. the wide-angle lens of the iphone 16 pro has also been upgraded to 5x optical zoom, which is consistent with the pro max, and a new desert color titanium has been added.

a major selling point of the entire iphone 16 series is the new physical touch switch on the right side, which is the camera control button. the operation method is similar to the shutter button of a slr camera - press lightly to focus, press hard to take photos/videos, and slide to switch functions such as zoom, exposure, and depth of field. in addition, apple will also support developers to integrate camera control functions into various third-party apps in the future.

it is worth noting thatlater this year, the iphone 16 series’ camera control function will also introduce a two-stage shutter, which will automatically lock the focus and exposure when tapped.

in order to pave the way for apple's first ai mobile phone, the iphone 16 series not only has all its memory upgraded to 8gb, but also comes standard with the second-generation 3nm a18 chip.to adapt to the performance of the generative large model. although the chatgpt function has been integrated, apple has stated that all ai functions will be provided free of charge with software updates.

specifically, writing tools can rewrite, proofread and summarize user-entered text throughout the entire system, including emails, memos, pages documents and third-party apps.

after adding the call recording function for the first time, apple will automatically generate a summary at the end of the call to help users review the key points.

siri will also become more natural and flexible. even if the user's expression is not coherent, siri will be able to understand smoothly, continue to use the contextual scenarios for consecutive requests, and even understand the current context of the screen, and perform hundreds of new operations in apple and third-party apps or across apps.

in addition, image playground can help users quickly generate interesting images; image wand can turn users' rough sketches into more fun images; emojis have also been newly upgraded. users only need to enter a descriptive text or select a photo of a relative or friend to create an original genmoji.

however, apart from some ai features demonstrated by writing tools, most other ai features have to wait for apple to unlock them in stages. even iphone 16 users will not be able to experience them first in october.

in addition to the iphone 16 series, apple also released airpods 4 and airpods max in a new color series on the same day. the standard version of airpods 4 is priced at 999 yuan, the active noise reduction version is priced at 1,399 yuan, and the airpods max that supports usb-c charging is priced at 3,999 yuan.

apple watch has also been updated to the tenth generation. the new apple watch series 10 series starts at 2999.

whether it is changing the camera back to a vertical arrangement or adding a dedicated photo/video button, there are hiddencook's careful thoughts on promoting user-generated video content.the emergence of more spatial photos and videos will undoubtedly benefit the sales of apple vision pro.

when vision pro is released in june 2023, cook will have taken over from jobs as apple ceo for 12 years. he has finally ushered in a "one more thing" moment that truly belongs to him, hoping to use mr (augmented reality) to usher in the post-iphone era.

at that time, cook loudly compared the personal computing era opened by vision pro and mac, and the mobile computing era opened by iphone, and shouted the slogan "the era of spatial computing is coming."

the outside world also expects apple to bring about a new trend again, just like it once used the launch of ipad and airpods to bring about the popularity of tablet computers and wireless headphones, and use vision pro to once again complete the market re-education of users.

zhang yiming is one of the people who has the strongest expectations for the above goals. as early as october 2018, zhang yiming received cook in shanghai and personally served as a tour guide, taking cook to visit the company and talking with employees. he expressed gratitude to cook many times and believed that part of the credit for tiktok's growth should be attributed to the promotion of the apple app store.

but at pico, zhang yiming’s wish to be carried to success again will be dashed.

faced with the vision pro, which has no breakthrough innovation in appearance design and application experience, not only has the capital market not been inspired by apple's new enthusiasm, but users have also begun to lose interest in it.

according to data released by idc, vision pro only caused a brief craze when it was launched. it has not yet sold 100,000 units in a quarter and there is a downward trend. after it is launched in more countries and regions such as china at the end of june, idc predicts that apple vision pro's total sales in 2024 will not exceed 500,000 units.

with the poor sales of vision pro, zhang yiming's dream of vr hardware also suffered a setback. in november last year, pico faced a major layoff, affecting nearly half of its employees. in august this year, pico launched its first mr mixed reality all-in-one machine, pico 4 ultra, which was priced at 4,299 yuan and did not make much of a splash.

another impact on the outside world's lack of interest in mr products is the unexpected arrival of the ai ​​wave.

when the iphone 14 is released in 2022, despite the opposition of huawei mate 50, the focus of outside attention is almost entirely on vision pro.

but when vision pro finally arrived in june 2023, the market trend had already shifted from mr to ai.

the day before the release of vision pro, guo mingchi wrote that in the long run, the key factor for the success of apple's ar/mr headsets lies in whether they can be highly integrated with ai or aigc. however, stimulated by the surge in nvidia's stock price, investors are more concerned about when apple will launch a service similar to chatgpt than about headsets.

the arrival of the first ai iphone directly stimulated investment banks to predict that apple would usher in a super replacement cycle. wedbush analysts believe that the iphone 16 series will usher in the largest upgrade cycle in apple's history.

“we continue to see further signs across the asian supply chain that this iphone upgrade cycle could be a historic one, setting the stage for a super cycle. we estimate that approximately 300 million iphones globally have not been upgraded in more than four years. as the ai-driven upgrade cycle continues, apple could see iphone sales of more than 240 million units in fiscal 2025.”

but how many chinese users can be impressed by this upgrade cycle has probably become a difficult problem for many analysts.

in early august, when apple initially unveiled some apple smart experiences in the developer beta version of ios 18.1, apple specifically reminded that to try out apple smart phones, the phone needs to be upgraded to 15 pro/pro max, and that it does not yet support the eu and china.

in the official website introduction of iphone 16, apple once again stated that the launch time of apple smartphones in china will depend on the approval of regulatory authorities.

but on the other hand, the chinese market has an unprecedented desire for the wave of phone replacement driven by ai.

“the competitive environment there (in china) is the most competitive in the world. i’ve said that before, and it’s still the case now.”

at apple's second quarter earnings conference, cook spoke frankly about the difficult environment in the chinese market. in the quarter, apple's revenue in greater china was $14.7 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 7%, lower than the $15.3 billion expected by analysts, making it the only region where apple's revenue declined year-on-year in the second quarter. what's worse is that in the chinese market, this is the fourth consecutive quarter that apple has experienced a year-on-year decline in revenue.

along with the decline in revenue, iphone sales in the chinese market also declined. canalys data shows that in the second quarter of 2024, the smartphone market in mainland china will further recover after experiencing a warming inflection point in the previous quarter, with shipments increasing by 10% year-on-year, returning to the level of 70 million units.

however, apple bucked the trend, with its market share falling 2% year-on-year and its ranking dropping to sixth. this marked the first time in history that domestic mobile phone manufacturers took the top five spots in the chinese mainland market.

when asked when ai functions could be opened in china and the european union, cook said that apple had worked very constructively with regulators in both regions. "our goal is to act as quickly as possible. we must first understand the regulatory requirements before we can commit to what to do and set a corresponding timetable."

taking samsung as an example, one of its ways to bring ai big models into the chinese market is to cooperate with chinese manufacturers. it has already connected to baidu wenxin big model and byte doubao big model.

in march this year, when cook visited china, there was news that apple was expected to reach a cooperation with baidu to introduce the latter's wenxin large model into apple devices such as iphone 16. so far, no further news has been released from the two parties. later, apple also reported intermittently that it was negotiating with domestic large model manufacturers such as alitongyi and baichuan intelligence.

now, it depends on who will get the big cake of iphone 16 ai cooperation.