Analyst: Apple has been a 'little disingenuous with its marketing' for AI features on iPhone 16

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. TweakTown may also earn commissions from other affiliate partners at no extra cost to you.

Apple has released its new iPhone 16 family of handsets, with the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max available across the planet right now... but... where are all those AI features that hte company promised with Apple Intelligence?

The on-device AI functionality that I've even seen advertised on TV, where they've got Bella Ramsey from The Last of Us looking literally useless without her iPhone and Apple Intelligence. The Hollywood actor... acts... as if she hasn't read the script given to her, so she gets a summary of it from Apple Intelligence, like that's meant to make you buy a multi-thousand-dollar new iPhone 16.

Anyway, now there's analyst Mark Gurman talking about the useless AI features in Apple's new iPhone 16 handsets and that some of them won't be fully-baked until 2025, and some of them are radically behind competing AI on the market. Gurman said that Apple has been a "little disingenuous with its marketing" as Apple claimed the iPhone 16 was the first model "built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence".

Yeah, right... revolutionary and inspiring, right Apple?

Gurman said: "To that end, it's no accident that the company is touting Apple Intelligence as the main reason to buy a new iPhone - despite the fact that the AI platform is unfinished and will ultimately work on last year's Pro models. This is where Apple is being a little disingenuous with its marketing. The company claims the iPhone 16 is the first model"built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence."The reality is that the processor and other hardware in the new iPhones isn't meaningfully better for AI. The key factor is having 8 gigabytes of memory, the minimum required to run Apple Intelligence".

• Read more: Apple delivers ChatGPT to Siri: introduces 'Apple Intelligence' at WWDC 2024

He continued: "If Apple felt that the hardware changes were enough of a selling point, it would have focused its marketing pitch around those features. Instead, it has zeroed in on Apple Intelligence in spite of the drawbacks. Most consumers won't have access to the software for weeks - with some features not coming until next year - and it's still nowhere near as capable as rival AI systems".

• Read more: Apple's new A18 Pro for iPhone 16: fastest mobile chip in CPU, GPU: only just behind M4, M2
• Read more: Apple iPhone 16 Pro teardown: A18 Pro smaller logic board, densely packed
• Read more: Apple's new A18 Pro in iPhone 16 Pro, Pro Max: TSMC 3nm, CPU, GPU faster
• Read more: Apple to use in-house 5G chips in new ultra-slim iPhone 17
• Read more: Apple is TSMC's first 2nm client of 2025: new iPhone 17, SoIC advanced packaging for M5 chips

If you're an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max user, you've got enough power in your hands to run Apple Intelligence, so there's no big reason to upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max. But, if you want to be like Bella Ramsey and have those next to useless AI features... that aren't even here yet, well, you know what to do.