Apple’s highly anticipated launch of the year may be approaching, with a report indicating that the iPhone 16 series could be released around September. The iPhone 16 series is expected to consist of the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Further, it is also leaked that the iPhone 16 series, at launch, may not come with one of Apple’s most advanced features to date, called Apple Intelligence.
The leak originates from a well-known source for Apple news, and that’s Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. In his latest Power On Newsletter, he suggests that the iPhone 16 series could launch around the same time iPhone 15 series launched last year, which points towards a September 10 launch date. However, an exact launch date has still not been confirmed by Gurman.
Aside from that, iPhone 16 series would not pack Apple Intelligence at the time of launch, which would be a major omission. The reason behind doing this, as per Gurman, is because Apple Intelligence still isn’t ready and won’t be until October. But that won’t stop Apple from launching iPhone 16 series despite Apple Intelligence being a core feature of the lineup.
Instead, Apple will bring the Apple Intelligence AI features to iPhone 16 series later in October via the iOS 18.1 software update. For those uninitiated, Apple released the first beta of iOS 18.1 with the initial set of Apple Intelligence features earlier last week. However, it still doesn’t include some of the most important features that constitute Apple Intelligence, such as the upgraded Siri and ChatGPT integration.
A report from earlier this year states that Apple will not significantly revamp the iPhone 16 models which includes design changes and the more comprehensive/differentiated GenAI ecosystem/applications until 2025 at the earliest. Moreover, this decision will also likely harm Apple’s iPhone shipment momentum and ecosystem growth until 2025’s iPhones come out.
Meanwhile, Google is preparing to show off its Pixel 9 series flagships later next week, on August 13. These flagships are expected to pack a load of AI features and will be competing with the iPhone 16 series, too.