CUPERTINO, CA – JUNE 10: (From left) Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple’s senior vice president of the Machines Division … [+]
With demand for Apple’s iPhones slowing, how will Tim Cook and his team attract consumers to their ecosystem? Data from analyst CIRP shows that demand for iPhones, especially the current iPhone 15 model, is lower than the iPhone 14 this quarter. This mirrors the pattern of declining demand seen in Q1 2024.
The report also highlights one way Apple hopes to revive sales, but it’s a gamble that will require patience in the fickle smartphone market.
Apple will likely focus on one key element of its iPhone 15 family that’s already accelerating Android sales: generative AI, which has transformed the way consumers think about what smartphones can do for them, from photo and video editing to summarizing and analyzing text and images to assisting with creativity.
After Apple’s AI plans were announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company’s shares rose 7%, mainly due to the expected increase in iPhone sales. Due to the high demands that generative AI places on hardware and Apple’s desire to process as much user data as possible on users’ devices, Apple Intelligence will only run on one existing iPhone model: the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Consumers who don’t have the most expensive iPhone on the market will need to buy the latest iPhone hardware to take advantage of the A18 Pro chip, which is specially designed to support generative AI routines.
But AI, which the iPhone noticeably lacks at the moment, won’t be available until Q1 2025. Tim Cook and his team will likely urge Apple’s loyal fans to buy the phone with the promise that they’ll get AI at some point in the future.
Meanwhile, all of these benefits are available on Android, and have been since Google unveiled the idea of AI-first smartphones when it unveiled the Pixel 8 in October 2024. Google’s Pixel 9 family is due to be unveiled in August, meaning Apple’s iPhones will be two generations behind Android’s AI efforts even before they leave the Cupertino stage.
Will consumers be willing to wait for Apple to catch up with its competitors, or will they decide that the AI revolution can’t wait? If it’s the former, Apple’s “long game” decision should help revitalize iPhone sales. But if it’s the latter, the Android ecosystem may have found Tim Cook’s Achilles heel.
Read on to find out more about Apple’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro launch plans…
