Apple will launch 8 very completely different iPhone 16 fashions

Nominally, all 4 2024 iPhone handsets – the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Professional, and the iPhone 16 Professional Max – will be capable to run Apple’s tackle AI, which it calls Apple Intelligence. 

The iPhone 16 with out App Retailer

Apple Developer group, August ’24

By the tip of the 12 months, an iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Professional, and the iPhone 16 Professional Max person within the EU will get far more management over Apple’s system or default apps than customers within the US may even dream about. 

An iPhone 16 with out an App Retailer? No downside, that one will be gone and changed by one of many third-party utility shops that popped up after Europe enforced its Digital Market Act’s antitrust laws towards Apple’s walled iOS backyard.

The iPhones in Europe could have a Default Apps Part the place they will merely uninstall a inventory browser, mail, utility retailer, and even fee apps, and change them with a 3rd celebration different. Not solely that, however “in future software program updates, customers will get new default settings for dialing cellphone numbers, sending messages, translating textual content, navigation, managing passwords, keyboards, and name spam filters,” guarantees Apple, although the navigation swap that can, say, change Apple with Google Maps, is coming subsequent 12 months.

The iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence

Oh, sorry, European patrons, US customers could have an AI-powered iPhone 16, and you will not!

This 12 months, the European Fee morphed its Common Knowledge Safety Regulation software program initiative into an much more formidable private privateness, safety, and shopper selection laws. The Digital Markets Act offers with antitrust laws, forcing Apple to permit options to the Safari browser, as an illustration. Then there’s the Digital Companies Act that demand communication platforms like X, Fb, or Telegram to look at for and take down illicit or deceptive content material. 

The final a part of the three pillars of European tech laws, nonetheless, is the AI Act that does the identical however for content material generated with the assistance of synthetic intelligence, requiring utmost transparency and inserting restrictions on AI fashions that focus on basic use situations just like the OpenAI, Google Gemini, and, sure, Apple’s nascent AI platform.

After blowing the AI craze out of proportion, nonetheless, because the Silicon Valley often does, the preliminary pleasure and overinvestment had subsided. Furthermore, the tech firm shares nosedived on the conclusion that individuals do not discover what they’re peddling thrilling sufficient to, say, purchase a brand new iPhone 16 solely on the AI-powered options.

An iPhone 16 purchased in Europe will not have even a whiff of Apple Intelligence, however all main inventory apps on it might be stripped away and changed with the person’s most well-liked different, like swapping the Safari browser with a completely purposeful Chrome.

At first look, will probably be the identical iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Professional, and iPhone 16 Professional Max in every single place. As soon as picked up, nonetheless, an iPhone 16 for the American market, and an iPhone 16 for Europe might be two completely different iPhones in iOS look, really feel, and options.