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after the release of the new iphone 16 series, netizens’ comments were polarized.

in the early morning of september 10th, beijing time, apple officially released the iphone 16 series of mobile phones and apple watch series 10 series watches, as well as new products such as airpods 4 wireless headphones. the new iphone 16 series still maintains four models, namely iphone 16, iphone 16 plus, iphone 16 pro, and iphone 16 pro max. the domestic prices are 5999 yuan, 6999 yuan, 7999 yuan, and 9999 yuan respectively, which is the same as the previous generation iphone 15 series.

in terms of color, iphone 16 and iphone 16 plus have five colors to choose from, namely black, white, pink, dark cyan and ultramarine. the camera arrangement has changed from the previous diagonal distribution to vertical arrangement. the iphone 16 pro series has a total of four colors, including white titanium, black titanium, original color titanium and the latest "desert titanium".

after the new phone was released, multiple iphone-related terms such as "iphone 16 price", "apple color scheme is ugly", "iphone 16 starts at 5999" and so on were trending on weibo. netizens joked that the color scheme of iphone 16 looks like colorful garbage bags and autumn johns.

some netizens believe that the color scheme of the iphone 16 is retro and non-mainstream, the overall saturation is not enough, and it lacks fashion and quality. they hope that apple can return to the classic black and white color schemes. a small number of netizens accept the new color scheme and believe that you must see the actual phone to know whether the color scheme is beautiful or not. "although pink is not everyone's cup of tea, it also shows apple's courage in different design styles."

the main upgrade highlights of the iphone 16 series include chips, artificial intelligence, and a new camera control button on the right side of the body; the pro version has a larger screen and further enhanced camera performance. at the press conference, apple ceo cook mentioned that this year's iphone is designed for apple intelligence, which is the core highlight of the iphone 16 series. most of these features have been demonstrated at wwdc 24, such as assisting in polishing text, generating emoji expressions, etc. siri has also been completely renewed and has become more intelligent. apple expects apple intelligence to start supporting chinese next year.

why is apple intelligence "late"? cook said in a conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 that apple is actively communicating with regulators in china and europe to promote the implementation of apple intelligence in the chinese and european markets.

although apple intelligence is not currently available for iphone models purchased in mainland china, netizens are still curious about the future application prospects of this feature and are speculating who will be the ai ​​supplier for apple intelligence in mainland china.

regarding the newly added camera control button on the right side of the body, netizens have mixed opinions. some think it is practical, some think it is mixed, and some netizens think that if too many functions are integrated into the camera control button, the function may become useless.

in general, netizens on social platforms have polarized views on the iphone 16. on the one hand, some people think that the new phone is not much different from previous models in appearance, functions and updates, and the cost performance is not high. on the other hand, some users like the iphone 16 and express their willingness to buy it.

will the excitement on social platforms trigger a wave of apple phone replacements? some media quoted nabila popal, research director of idc's global tracking team, as saying: "existing iphone users who have owned their devices for three to four years will definitely be tempted to upgrade, even if something comes later, because it will make their devices stand up to the test of artificial intelligence."

some analysts believe that the delay in functionality has kept many potential buyers on the sidelines initially. "you may see people wait a while to see how these things work and how well they function, but i don't think we're going to see the crazy rush that we've seen in the last few years," said bob o'donnell, chief analyst at technalysis research.

well-known apple reporter mark gurman also believes that it is unlikely that there will be a super replacement wave this year, partly because many consumers around the world are tightening their spending. secondly, the bigger problem may be attributed to the device itself. the appearance of the new iphone is almost the same as last year's model. although there are some minor design upgrades and other features, it is necessary to have a completely new design to stimulate consumers to upgrade.

according to foreign media reports, apple has previously increased its shipment forecast for the iphone 16 series to 90 million units in 2024, a 10% increase compared to the iphone 15 series during the same period.

apple analyst ming-chi kuo's report released on september 9 showed that apple raised its 2024 iphone 16 series shipment forecast from 87 million to 88 million units to 88 million to 89 million units, with the main increase coming from the standard version of the iphone 16. in august this year, ming-chi kuo predicted that apple's iphone 16 series orders in the second half of 2024 would be about 87 million units, lower than the 91 million iphone 15 series ordered by apple in the same period of 2023. the actual sales volume of the iphone 16 after its launch will ultimately depend on market response and consumer choice.

according to the third quarter financial report of fiscal year 2024, apple achieved revenue of us$85.777 billion this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%, higher than analysts' expectations of us$84.46 billion; non-gaap net profit was us$21.448 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%; diluted earnings per share (eps) was us$1.40, a year-on-year increase of 11%, higher than the market expectation of us$1.35.

this is the sixth consecutive quarter that apple's revenue and profit have exceeded expectations, setting a record for the company's third-quarter total revenue and eps in history.

but apple's third-quarter performance in greater china was disappointing, with revenue falling 6.5% year-on-year to $14.73 billion, below analysts' expectations of $15.26 billion.

on july 26, the latest mobile phone quarterly tracking report released by the third-party organization idc showed that in the second quarter of 2024, china's smartphone market shipments were about 71.58 million units, a year-on-year increase of 8.9%. in the second quarter, driven by manufacturers such as vivo, huawei and xiaomi, the android market grew by 11.1% year-on-year. after the substantial price cuts, although apple's market demand has improved significantly, ios market shipments still fell by 3.1% year-on-year, and the iphone also fell out of the top five.

(source: the paper)