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Apple Explains iPhone 15 Pro Requirement for Apple Intelligence
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Yeah, I bought the 15 because I didn't need what the Pro offered, which, before AI, was primarily the camera upgrade. I certainly didn't expect embargoed features on a current, non-SE, model. Oh well, I'm not upgrading for a few years, so I'll just have to accept that. The RAM does seem to be a factor.
Nonsense. Asking Siri to "send photos from yesterday's party to my friend via iMessage" is supposed to be some rocket science for technophiles??
There is no such thing as "normie person" when it comes to computing.
Good question. In comparison to Samsung for example, when they announced their new S24 lineup early this year, they introduced their AI bundle as being one of the main new features of their new phones available "immediately" in early 2024.
They then caused a little excitement when they announced that, with the One UI 6.1 update (Samsung's flavour of Android), the complete lineup of S23 phones (from early 2023) and their latest existing foldable devices could also support these new AI features. This means that all their phones released after February 2023 would support this bundle.
In contrast, Apple is essentially announcing that their AI bundle won't be supported on all their latest available phones (i.e. iPhone 15 non-pro).
So, in terms of perception alone, it probably stings quite a bit if your phone is less than a year old and is already not supported by Apple to run their latest shiny new AI features (probably because they have only 6GB of RAM instead of 8GB for pro devices). Even more so since we have been hearing from many sources, including Apple, ad nauseam, that Apple's memory management is superior to its competitors' and that their basic memory offerings on all devices should be more than sufficient for years to come for a majority of users. It now appears to be a significant limiting factor, less than a year after release.
A polite way of saying «all these years, we've saved some pennies by shipping underpowered devices with twice less RAM than competition, and now it's going to finally bite you, but don't worry, we're not incentivising you to buy a new device!»
Couple more years and all the 8gb Macs will become so useless that it's going to hurt reputation of Mac platform badly, while PC users will keep enjoying multi-tasking on their reasonably affordable 32gb laptops with crisp and punchy OLED screens.
Come on, “it’s a scheme to make you buy new phones!”… not really, just don’t fall for it, especially if AI has no real benefits practically speaking for the person.
If Apple Intelligence makes all the difference in someone’s world, the sure, but else… really, just continue using ChatGPT or Apple Intelligence on the iPad or Mac if a compatible one is already owned.
Every year a new car model of the one you drive already comes out, but there’s no need to buy it (or rent/lease like the latest 20 years trend). A new bicycle if you bike, new game console, new things and trinkets are coming out every single month… just skip it, let the price get slashed, get it half a year or a year later and profit from the comfort of a less financially strangled life.
If Apple Intelligence makes all the difference in someone’s world, the sure, but else… really, just continue using ChatGPT or Apple Intelligence on the iPad or Mac if a compatible one is already owned.
Every year a new car model of the one you drive already comes out, but there’s no need to buy it (or rent/lease like the latest 20 years trend). A new bicycle if you bike, new game console, new things and trinkets are coming out every single month… just skip it, let the price get slashed, get it half a year or a year later and profit from the comfort of a less financially strangled life.
I think everyone was blindsided by the speed by which AI is taking over everything (no pun intended, Skynet). Copilot+ isn’t available on anything but the new Snapdragon ARM processors with AMD and Intel behind in getting out SoC’s with neural engines. Apparently Apple didn’t even get in the game until the end of 2022. If anything, Apple’s lucky due to blind chance that they have devices going back three or four years that can actually support the new Apple Intelligence while Apple’s competitors can only support their most recent, if not only brand new, hardware. Interesting that no one’s complaining Copilot+ is available on only a tiny percentage of brand spanking new hardware and runs on nothing older than this week, yet Apple gets slammed for not going back four years on their iPhones, a time where nobody was thinking of AI.
How many Android phones out right now can handle anything comparable to Apple Intelligence or any generative AI?
Those saying Apple deliberately held back support on older iPhones gives them far more credit than they deserve. Yes, Apple was ahead of its time in machine learning and even hosting a neural engine, but didn’t have the foresight to see what AI could fully do until only recently. In reality, I think they got caught with their pants down, as did every other tech giant, and all are rushing to catch up.
How many Android phones out right now can handle anything comparable to Apple Intelligence or any generative AI?
Those saying Apple deliberately held back support on older iPhones gives them far more credit than they deserve. Yes, Apple was ahead of its time in machine learning and even hosting a neural engine, but didn’t have the foresight to see what AI could fully do until only recently. In reality, I think they got caught with their pants down, as did every other tech giant, and all are rushing to catch up.
I'd say it's much better to have the choice.
You don't want it cuz it's slow? Fine, deactivate it.
You want it even if it's slow? Great, you can still use it.
Suuurrrreee Apple. No greed in play at all. As for RAM. If only there was virtual RAM.
Anyone defending Apple is just blinded by Tim’s smile. They deliberately don’t put enough RAM in these devices. They should have seen this eventuality but chose not to in the name of profit. They figured when this took off they could make a new model that had a marginal RAM increase to justify it not supporting older hardware. It’s all just greed. Not shortsightedness, and not a mistake.
Anyone defending Apple is just blinded by Tim’s smile. They deliberately don’t put enough RAM in these devices. They should have seen this eventuality but chose not to in the name of profit. They figured when this took off they could make a new model that had a marginal RAM increase to justify it not supporting older hardware. It’s all just greed. Not shortsightedness, and not a mistake.
But there are apps that DO.
There are tons of apps on the App Store that levy AI to edit pictures, create art, music, mimic voices, day planners, EVERYTHING.
Google is creating a keyboard that will have AI emoji creation and tons of AI features directly in the iMessage chat bar. All you have to do is download the keyboard.
Apple isn’t offering much else than what is already out there
Basically, “we move way more phones than Mac or iPad so we are making it seem like it’s not a way to move phones.”
After reading the article and a bunch of responses (still have many pages to go), I still think Apple was forced to launch this early due to the AI (OMG Gotta Have It) mentality. If this moved out two years, iPhone 17, those who did not have a 15 Pro or better would be seeing “ it would be a big improvement jumping to the 17 or 17 Pro” message.
Remember, most of this will not start showing till 2025. That also fits into my surmise.
Bet we won’t see the good stuff and good performance + battery till the 17.
JMO
Remember, most of this will not start showing till 2025. That also fits into my surmise.
Bet we won’t see the good stuff and good performance + battery till the 17.
JMO
Gruber: "So it's not a scheme to sell new iPhones?"
Joswiak: "No, not at all. Otherwise, we would have been smart enough just to do our most recent iPads and Macs, too, wouldn't we?"
Just the smugness and arrogance of this guy.
It's no secret at all that Macs and iPads easily have 2-4 longer replacement rate than the iPhone, so consumers will replace their phones sooner for features.
Also, it's a lot more cumbersome to show AI demos and run developer Betas at and after WWDC with just iPads or Macs, so these features had to be (whether restricted or not by Apple hardware) on some verison of the current Gen of iPhones for many reasons, technical and marketing/sales wise. All of which means it could've been run on iPhone 15, maybe with some more limitations, but they'd rather sell more 16 in 3 months then have a run on 15's now, since those are more than likely all produced by now and sitting in inventory.
Joswiak: "No, not at all. Otherwise, we would have been smart enough just to do our most recent iPads and Macs, too, wouldn't we?"
Just the smugness and arrogance of this guy.
It's no secret at all that Macs and iPads easily have 2-4 longer replacement rate than the iPhone, so consumers will replace their phones sooner for features.
Also, it's a lot more cumbersome to show AI demos and run developer Betas at and after WWDC with just iPads or Macs, so these features had to be (whether restricted or not by Apple hardware) on some verison of the current Gen of iPhones for many reasons, technical and marketing/sales wise. All of which means it could've been run on iPhone 15, maybe with some more limitations, but they'd rather sell more 16 in 3 months then have a run on 15's now, since those are more than likely all produced by now and sitting in inventory.
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Guess you missed the part where every Apple Silicon mac ever can run these? As opposed to say, M4 models only.
The whole "Apple is only doing the things it does to make you upgrade" trope is so boring.
Don’t be too happy, Apple may have one or two Apple Intelligence features reserved for the 16 Pro up their sleeves.
virtual ram would kill the flash storage faster, because they have limited read / write life cycle.
A-series SoC's do not support virtual memory, not even the A17 Pro. Only M-series support virtual memory.
Impressive or not. Let’s wait until we see how much internal space that LLM actually uses. Size depends on number of parameters as well. iPhone 15 runs an A16 starting from 128GB. There is a very good technical reason they made the cut off there.
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The company behind Siri is now developing an AI...wow.
Or to put it another way: yesterday they promised us an assistant, today we have a monkey. They promise us a scientist today and tomorrow we get a car mechanic.
Sorry Apple, but there are so many out there who are better than you in this area. I'm not going to make a purchase decision based on your ridiculous attempts at AI.
You've missed the boat, just face it.
Or to put it another way: yesterday they promised us an assistant, today we have a monkey. They promise us a scientist today and tomorrow we get a car mechanic.
Sorry Apple, but there are so many out there who are better than you in this area. I'm not going to make a purchase decision based on your ridiculous attempts at AI.
You've missed the boat, just face it.
Apple’s marketing strategy reveals how selective their consumer base is. If you choose to board this train, be prepared to pay more and continually upgrade. While Apple doesn’t force you to buy the iPhone 15 Pro/Max or wait for the upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, consider the allure of Apple Intelligence. If you’re enticed, waiting for the iPhone 16 might be more worthwhile than purchasing the current iPhone 15 Pro/Max. Remember, Apple encourages but doesn’t coerce—especially when it comes to their latest and greatest products, including the Pro and Pro Max models. 🍎📱✨
With iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, Apple is introducing a new personalized AI experience called Apple Intelligence that uses on-device, generative large-language models to enhance the user experience across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
These new AI features require Apple's latest iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models to work, while only Macs and iPads with M1 or later chips will support Apple Intelligence. Since the news came to light, many users have been asking what the reason is for the cut-off.
In The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2024, Daring Fireball's John Gruber put the question to Apple's AI/machine learning head John Giannandrea, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and software engineering chief Craig Federighi, and this was the response.
Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that the company's first move with any new feature is to work out how to bring it back to older devices as far as possible. But when it comes to Apple Intelligence, "This is the hardware that it takes... It's a pretty extraordinary thing to run models of this power on an iPhone," he added.
The iPhone 15 Pro models use the A17 Pro chip, which has a 16-core Neural Engine that's up to 2x faster than the A16 chip found in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, performing nearly 35 trillion operations per second. Federighi hinted that RAM is also another aspect of the system that the new AI features require, so it is perhaps no coincidence that all the devices compatible with Apple Intelligence have at least 8GB of RAM.
Despite the cutoff, owners of older iPhones still have plenty to look forward to in Apple's upcoming software update: iOS 18 boasts several new features besides Apple Intelligence, and every iPhone that can run iOS 17 is compatible iOS 18. That includes the iPhone XR from 2018.
If you still want Apple Intelligence in your pocket but don't have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, you may want to hold out for the iPhone 16 series, which is expected to launch when iOS 18 is released in the fall.
Article Link: Apple Explains iPhone 15 Pro Requirement for Apple Intelligence
Apple would have had the foresight that they could only support the A17 Pro back when they were designing the 15/15 Pro, and they still did it. Meaning, they don’t care that they’re punishing people who bought the iPhone 15 less than a year ago. It was planned that way.
The new iPhone naming strategy (releasing last year’s technology with the flagship name) is one of the sneakiest things they’ve done. They obviously realised they were on to something when they released the 5c/5s.
The correct iPhone names are:
iPhone 13 (13/13 Pro/14)
iPhone 14 (14 Pro/15)
iPhone 15 (15 Pro)
The new iPhone naming strategy (releasing last year’s technology with the flagship name) is one of the sneakiest things they’ve done. They obviously realised they were on to something when they released the 5c/5s.
The correct iPhone names are:
iPhone 13 (13/13 Pro/14)
iPhone 14 (14 Pro/15)
iPhone 15 (15 Pro)