Apple is banking on software, not hardware, to sell the iPhone 16

The iPhone 15 series was a pretty decent upgrade, bringing new chipsets, Dynamic Island cutouts across the board, action buttons on the Pro models, and USB-C for the first time. The Pro Max model also got a folded zoom camera for the first time, finally catching up to the best Android phones.

Now, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter that the iPhone 16 series won’t have any major hardware advances in 2024.

“So Apple is banking on the software to sell people on the new models,” Gurman is quoted as saying.

What should we expect from iOS 18 and iPhone 16?

The journalist notes that Apple is working to bring generative AI features to the new iPhone software.

There’s no word on specific AI features, although the likes of Samsung recently announced AI capabilities including real-time call translations, image generation, document summaries, and message drafting. So we’d expect Apple to offer some of these features. But we also hope to see loads more features and improvements not related to generative AI.

Gurman also reiterated that Apple decided to briefly freeze development on its new iPhone and Mac updates due to bug fixes. So fingers crossed that this delay helps make iOS 18 and its AI features a very polished experience.

Otherwise, iPhone 16 leaks point to another hardware shortcut button, smaller Dynamic Islands, and a folded zoom camera on the Pro device.