Apple Intelligence won’t come to China quickly, so iPhone sales will depend on hardware merits

Apple on Monday is set to unveil its iPhone 16 lineup, focusing on how its flagship device’s features have been infused with artificial intelligence, rather than its usual emphasis on hardware upgrades – except in China.
Kenrick Cai for Reuters:
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The refresh comes as iPhones face stiff competition from Huawei in China, where consumers are hankering for more AI features and are willing to pay for them. Huawei itself has scheduled its own product announcement mere hours after Apple’s event.
Apple Intelligence must be approved by Beijing in order to be released in the Chinese market. In July, OpenAI blocked access to ChatGPT in China, a move that could impact the chatbot’s integration into Siri.
“The Chinese market is hungrier for AI features than the U.S. market,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO and principal analyst at Creative Strategies. “It will be very difficult to bring it to China immediately, so they’ll be going off the merits of the hardware.”
Apple has so far shared a timeline for the release of Apple Intelligence only in the United States, where it is slated to launch on compatible devices in the autumn.
In June, one week after its developer conference, Apple said it would delay the release in Europe due to European Union tech rules.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple iPhones have long offered superior hardware to Chinese phones, including those from Huawei, especially in the processor area, but that hasn’t seemed to have helped. iPhone discounts in China moved more units than the merits of the hardware ever did. Hopefully, Apple can get some form of Apple Intelligence approved and released in China and elsewhere outside of the U.S. ASAP, but we suspect it’ll take years to make it to China and many other countries.

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