Apple is betting on artificial intelligence to boost sales of the new iPhone 16

With the economy in a downturn, Apple is under pressure to show customers what it can offer in order to spur a new wave of iPhone sales.

On Monday, the tech giant showed off its creation – the iPhone 16, which has a camera button on the outside of the phone.

The button is an external clue to the changes Apple has made to its latest smartphone, which are designed to take advantage of the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI).

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the improvements will “push the boundaries of what’s possible on a smartphone,” but the company faces stiff competition as other brands have already integrated generative AI features into their phones.

Apple’s stock price fell during its “Glowtime” event, where the company unveiled the iPhone 16 and other products, and ended the day flat. The $3 trillion company is worried it is losing its edge in the emerging field of artificial intelligence.

Sales of the iPhone — Apple’s most important product, which accounts for about half of all sales — have stagnated in recent months, falling 1% in the nine months ended June 29 from a year earlier.

Apple said its new phones, which feature longer battery life, more powerful processors and improved privacy features, are the company’s first phones designed specifically to support artificial intelligence and new “Apple Intelligence” tools, many of which were unveiled in June.

These include new tools for typing and creating new emojis, as well as the inclusion of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in Siri to help users with certain queries and text generation requests.

Apple on Monday also announced updates to its Apple Watch and AirPods that will allow them to automatically turn down the volume when users start face-to-face conversations, as well as decline calls by shaking their heads.

The company said the AirPods Pro version will be able to be used as a “clinical-grade” personal hearing aid for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

The company said it expects regulatory approval for the device to be available for sale “soon,” and that the feature will be available in more than 100 countries this fall, including the U.S., Germany, and Japan.

The company previously offered a feature that allowed hearing aids to pair with iPhones and other devices.

The products were unveiled at a raucous event where protesters gathered in a designated free speech zone across the street, calling on executives to do more to protect children from dangerous content on the company’s App Store.

A life-size figure resembling Mr Cook was displayed during the protest.

Sales of the new series will start in September, and prices for the iPhone 16 will start at $799.

However, Apple Intelligence features won’t be available on operating systems until October, starting in the US and rolling out to other countries in the following months. They’ll be available in the UK in December.

Ben Wood, principal analyst at market research firm CCS Insight, said many people will likely dismiss the company’s new camera controller, calling it an “improved shutter button.”

But he added that it offers “very significant” improvements, including AI-powered visual search, and he emerged from the presentation confident that Apple will win over customers.

“The combination of Apple Intelligence and the new camera features in iPhone 16 will help encourage loyal Apple customers to upgrade,” he said. “Particularly since Apple is positioning this latest update as a future-proof purchase for customers who want to get Apple Intelligence features as they roll out over the next few years.”

Apple has been slower than its competitors Samsung and Google to implement artificial intelligence (AI) features in its devices for photo editing, translation and web browsing.

The competition is now producing foldable, rotating, and even tri-fold smartphones.

Pre-orders for Huawei’s new tri-foldable Mate XT phone reportedly surpassed three million on Monday.

Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann said that because Apple is releasing AI-enabled smartphones later than its competitors, it is “crucial” that it delivers on its products.

She warned that implementing these features before they were finalized could put the business at risk or cause sales to decline.