New iPhone 16 Leaks, Steve Jobs’ Polaroids, Faster iPhone 16 Pro Revealed

Let’s take a look at this week’s Apple news and headlines, including a look at Apple’s Q3 financial results, details about the new iPhone 16 Pro, the arrival of Apple Intelligence, a quick iPhone update, MacBook Pro monitors, the lack of iPhone love in China, frustration with Vision Pro games, and Steve Jobs’ Polaroid photos…

Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly Android news digest here on Forbes.

Apple’s Flat Numbers Saved by iPad

Apple’s Q3 results have been announced, and they’re good reading for the iPad team. While iPhone and Mac remained broadly stable (iPhone revenue fell one percent, Mac revenue rose two percent), iPad grew 24 percent year over year:

“Overall, the iPhone business declined slightly from $39.67 billion in the same quarter last year to $39.30 this year. As a percentage of total sales, iPhone is the lowest share of the company’s other products and services in almost four years. So how did the company still manage to earn 5 percent of total revenue? That was largely due to strong gains in both services and iPad revenue.”

(Apple, Ars Technica).

iPhone 16 Pro Color Leak

This week, we saw exclusive photos of the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. They not only confirmed design details of the camera layout and the new capture and action buttons, but also revealed some of the new colors of Apple’s next smartphone:

“Three colours were shown that could best be described as standards to match last year’s White Titanium, Black Titanium and Natural Titanium. Also appearing for 2023 is Blue Titanium; it’s not visible in the images provided by Dickson, but I expect the new colours will help boost sales as people look for a fashionable choice.”

(Forbes).

Apple’s Early Appearance of Intelligence

Tim Cook slammed Apple Intelligence on Apple’s earnings call as a booster for iPhone sales as consumers upgrade to the hardware they need. Developers now have their first look at a subset of the software… provided they’re based in America:

“Applies to US users only. Apple notes that before downloading the update, “both your device language and Siri language must be set to US English, and your device region must be set to the United States.” Apple explains that Apple Intelligence is not available in the EU or China… perhaps EU regulations that came with the Digital Markets Act prevented Apple from prioritizing European countries as well.

(Forbes).

iPhone Fast Wifi7

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will have a more powerful processor and faster charging, but that’s not the only speed boost these phones will have. Leaked specs reveal that the new phones will support Wi-Fi 7 with improved connections and lower latency. Assuming you can find a Wi-Fi 7 network that is:

“All of this is very desirable, but Wi-Fi 7 does have a downside, at least for now: Wi-Fi 7 is currently rare and expensive. So don’t expect the iPhone 16 Pro to change connection speeds and durability overnight.”

(Forbes).

MacBook Pro M3 Gets Multiple Displays

Apple has been reluctant to equip its consumer-oriented MacBooks with the software and hardware to support multiple monitors from a single laptop. This week’s macOS update enabled a handy multitasking option for the latest MacBook Pro.

“Despite the same chip, the entry-level MacBook Pro M3 did not have this feature. The company confirmed to 9to5Mac in March that a future software update would also allow MacBook Pro M3 owners to use two external displays at once, and that promise was fulfilled today.

(9to5Mac).

Apple Loses Top Positions in China

Apple has been struggling in China, with its market share steadily shrinking as more and more domestic manufacturers enter the market. Canalys reports on this week’s sales and notes that Apple has dropped out of the top five manufacturers, with Apple Intelligence once again being cited as the savior:

“Apple’s market share in China has been declining, falling to 14% in Q2 from 15% in Q1 and 16% a year earlier. This is the first quarter in history where domestic vendors dominate all five top positions,” said Canalys research analyst Lucas Zhong. Localizing Apple’s intelligence services in mainland China will be a significant move over the next 12 months, Canalys said, as Chinese brands aggressively incorporate generative AI into their products.

(CNBC).

Vision Pro Frustrations on Apple Arcade

Launched in a blaze of hope and gadgetry, Apple’s Vision Pro headset failed to ignite the market. Part of that may be due to the lack of third-party apps. A report in Mobile Gamer this week quotes a number of developers who considered games and app development for VisionOS and found the hardware to be inadequate, as well as Apple’s irresponsible approach to building relationships:

“Two other sources told us that Apple approached them about making a Vision Pro game, but they were not offered any compensation for making the title or any guarantee that it would be promoted or advertised in any way. Unlike Meta, which funds many VR projects, Apple does not offer independent developers any financial incentives to make Vision Pro games – an approach the source described as “completely baffling.”

(Mobile player).

And finally…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Steve Jobs, who has a few photos, must be able to sell a product. Long ago, Jobs had to sell the first batch of Apple-1 computers with only a few polaroids and his cunning. These polaroids are now up for auction:

“The photos were given to Byte Shop owner Paul Terrell by Steve Jobs at the 1976 Apple-1 demonstration to entice him to buy it. The offer worked, and Terrell agreed to buy 50 Apple-1 computers, provided they were fully assembled. It would be Apple’s first large order. It provided Jobs with the seed money to start producing computers.”

(Apple Insider)

Apple Loop brings you seven days of top stories every weekend right here on Forbes. Be sure to follow me so you don’t miss any future coverage. You can read last week’s Apple Loop here , and this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit , is also available on Forbes .