iPhone 16 could launch in second week of Sep despite Apple Intelligence delay

Apple Intelligence may only arrive in October, but that's not stopping Apple from sticking to a September launch timeframe for the iPhone 16 lineup. 

In his latest Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg discussed whether the delayed availability of Apple Intelligence will force Apple to push back the launch of the iPhone 16.

According to his source, that isn't the case. Gurman says the iPhone 16 launch event will be held "around the same time as last year" and he thinks 10 September (Tuesday) is the likely launch event date. If you remember, Apple launched the iPhone 15 on 12 September last year – also a Tuesday. 

Gurman added that getting the "key new feature" via a future software update is not "that big of a deal". He cited the example of Portrait Mode for the iPhone 7 Plus, which was only made available via the iOS 10.1 update one month after its launch.

Furthermore, not all features of Apple Intelligence will be available at launch. It will be coming to users "in beta" and some other features will rolled out "over the course of the next year". Hence, consumers will probably not see Apple Intelligence as a core feature of the iPhone 16. 

Even then, investment firm Wedbush believed Apple Intelligence could drive a "massive upgrade cycle" for the iPhone 16 and reverse Apple's sales decline in China.

The investment firm expects Apple Intelligence to make Apple "the consumer gatekeeper of AI features" due to its significant userbase and attract other AI companies to work with Apple. 

Source: Bloomberg

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