It's been a long time coming! The long-awaited Apple AI finally appeared, I thought that Apple and OpenAI would be a king bomb, the upper can lead the AI to fly into the homes of ordinary people, and the lower can save Apple's sales from falling, but I didn't expect it to be bigger, which makes people sigh after reading it: "That's it? That's it? ”
Not only does it not have any particularly eye-catching features, but the mainland version of the iPhone is really as rumored to be, and it can't use Apple AI.
And unprecedentedly, in the second quarter of this year, Apple's mobile phone sales in mainland China fell out of the top five for the first time, and shipments fell 3.1%, and was kicked to Others in China. Originally, everyone thought that iPhone AI would be the lifeline, but now it seems that iPhone AI is not as powerful as imagined.
Apple AI, around the continent
In the early morning of July 30, Apple pushed the beta update of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 Developer Preview to select iPhone, iPad and Mac users, bringing a preview of the first batch of Apple's AI features, Apple Intelligence.
笨蛋Siri摇身一变，蜕变为 Apple Intelligence & Siri，代表着苹果AI的正式降临。
But don't get excited. This time, Apple will judge whether to provide services based on some factors such as geographical location, IP location, SIM card area code, etc.
To put it bluntly, even if your device is updated with iOS18.1, as long as the device models are sold in mainland China, Apple AI is not available at all.
● Source: Apple
When Cook said at the press conference that Apple would cooperate with OpenAI to embed GTP-4o into Siri, some people speculated that GTP-4o would not be used in the mainland, and it was most likely the continent-ring AI, and sure enough, it was true.
However, it is not only us who can't use Apple's AI, but also our brothers in Europe. Apple said that the European Union's new legislation to curb the power of tech giants is subject to regulatory uncertainty, so it will delay the launch of Apple's AI in Europe, and it is said that it will not be able to implement it in the EU this year.
Good guys, Europe is not only targeting our new energy vehicles, but also Apple, and it seems that the main one is the same.
However, the reason why Apple devices sold in mainland China cannot use AI is that the device is locked, while Europe is locked IP, and the European version of the iPhone can still use Apple AI if it is in non-European regions, so the funny scene is coming: in the mainland you can use the European version of the iPhone to use Apple AI.
Non-Chinese devices can opt in to the Apple Intelligence Waitlist after switching to the United States and English (United States) language for non-Chinese devices, and wait patiently for the device to download the device-side model to start the experience.
Of course, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max iPads with M1 and above chips in China can be updated to iOS18.1, but after the update, you can only get a new Siri interface with purple effects but still mentally retarded and a very advanced recording and call function.
● Source: Apple
That's right,It's the recording call function that all Android machines have,Apple has not been able to use this function in order to protect user privacy,But after this updateiPhone15Pro and iPhone15Pro Max can be used,You just need to start a call,Click the small record button in the upper left corner of the screen,You can store the content of the call in the memo。
However, before you start recording, the person on the other side of the phone with you will receive a notification that the call is being recorded, which is hard to evaluate... Why don't we buy an Android backup phone for making calls.
Regarding when Apple's AI will land in China, Cook said in the earnings call: Apple is in contact with Chinese regulators and promises to make Apple Intelligence available to users around the world.
Full blood AI, how strong is it?
After talking about the update content of the mainland version of iOS18.1, let's take a look at what the fruit of the foreign full-blooded version of AI looks like.
In addition to the new Siri interface and voice features, Apple Intelligence is mainly used for the processing of text and images.
In terms of image processing,Apple updated the photo App,Now you can directly search for the photos you want to find through natural language,It's a blessing for friends who have a lot of photos in their mobile phones,It can also support the creation of memory videos directly through language description,Xiaobian can't wait to try Siri can help me classify the photos of my ex-girlfriend、Ex-girlfriend、Oh, it turns out that Xiaobian is a mother single flower.,That's fine。
● Source: Apple
However, Apple surprisingly didn't update the AI elimination feature that is already standard in the Android camp, and to be honest, this feature is really easy to use, and many times you can turn a photo into magic without turning on PS.
Although Apple's update is lackluster in terms of images, there is still a big improvement in word processing.
According to IT Home, the Writing Tools, powered by Apple Intelligence, can be called system-wide and will provide three major features:
The Rewrite tool allows users to choose different versions and adjust the style according to the audience and the needs of the manuscript.
The Proofread checker checks grammar, phrasing, and sentence structure to suggest changes.
The Summarize tool summarizes user-selected text in the form of easy-to-understand paragraphs, bullet points, tables, or lists.
● Source: Apple
These three tools are really good for everyday writing needs, in addition, Writing Tools allows you to view full summaries without opening emails, Smart Reply generates reply suggestions for users, whether it's a reply to a message or a message, and Safari Reader Mode can also use the summary function to summarize the content of an article using Apple Intelligence.
不过，Image Playground 文生图工具、Genmoji 表情生成工具等功能并未在 iOS 18.1 Beta 更新中实装。
From these aspects, Apple's AI can also be regarded as a deep integration of GTP-4o, which makes it more convenient for us to use.
But for now, as long as these functions can use GTP, it seems that they can be done without Apple Intelligence, and the mobile phone AI that consumers want to see should be an AI that can mobilize the entire mobile phone and Internet resources with one instruction, such as issuing an instruction to book a hotel, AI can deduce the most suitable check-in time and place according to your ticket information, and then issue a diary instruction, AI can generate a real diary based on your daily consumption and movement tracks.
Maybe these scenarios will involve personal privacy, and I don't know how Apple will solve them. At present, Apple Intelligence is far from being smart enough, but after all, it has just started, and it will be more intelligent over time.
The market loses, can the iPhone16 be saved?
In the face of domestic manufacturers, the iPhone15 series played the fastest price reduction in history at the beginning of the year, and played the iPhone series with the largest decline in history in 618, but the sales volume is still unnoticed, and it was kicked to Others, which is of course Huawei's strong return, with a year-on-year increase of 50.2%, but I think Apple's products in recent years are too unenterprising, which has led to the current market loss.
●Source: IDC
Last month, two topics #苹果用户换机周期变长##71% of iPhones that have been used for more than two years# made it to the hot search.
Although these two items are very similar to the hot searches that Apple bought, the original intention was to market the durability of Apple's mobile phones, but they also reflect the lack of innovation of Apple's new phones and even the problems that cannot meet the daily needs of users: ancestral charging speeds, anxious signals, unchanged back cover arrangements for many years (although I think this is an advantage), the application cannot be double-opened, and even the phone recording is regarded as a huge update.
It completely makes users feel unfresh, which leads to users having no desire to change their phones at all.
This lack of innovation is not only reflected in the iPhone, when the Vision Pro was released in North America last year, it was also known as an epoch-making product, and many fruit fans said: "I see the future of technology!" ”
As a result, a year later, the Vision Pro has been slapped in the face in the market, and Apple has continuously lowered its shipment expectations and announced that it will stop research and development. Some people say that the 7-day no-reason return became the last straw that crushed the Vision Pro, because this product was enough to allow consumers to fully discover its shortcomings within 7 days.
However, Apple seems to be confident in the upcoming release of the iPhone 16, and there have been media reports that Apple has increased the stock of iPhone 16 series phones twice in the past month, showing that it is confident in the sales of new products.
In fact, the layout of the iPhone16 basic version of the camera has changed, the Pro series screen-to-body ratio has been improved, followed by a new chip and larger memory, and the color matching is more vivid, the changes are indeed not small, but it is indeed just a regular upgrade, the only thing worth looking forward to is whether the iPhone16 can solve the AI problem of the national version of the iPhone when it is released, even if it can really only be said in the heart, I believe that many consumers will be willing to pay.
●Source: Xiaobai evaluation
It is reported that because of the AI of the iPhone, the price of the non-national iPhone in the secondary market is soaring, and the Hong Kong version, the Japanese version, the British version, and the American version are all without exception, which shows that the market empowerment of AI for Apple is still obvious.
In recent years, the iPhone has been held twice on the 8th day after Labor Day in the United States, so some media speculated that the iPhone 16 should be released on September 10.
On July 23, Huawei also announced that the Mate 70 series mobile phones will be released in the fourth quarter of this year, and they will be equipped with the official version of HarmonyOS NEXT for the first time. And there is news on the Internet that the performance of Huawei Mate70 will also return to the first echelon.
At that time, the iPhone16 series and the Mate70 series of the two top flagships are both throwing out of the king of the bomb for a head-to-head showdown, for this kind of hard power in the scientific and technological world, it may be more exciting than the Olympic Games, whether it is a user of these two brands, everyone must be curious who can stand in the market and have the last laugh.