Apple Explains iPhone 15 Pro Requirement for Apple Intelligence

[darngooddesign]

If it weren’t scheme to sell the 15 Pro versions, they would have given the regular 15s good enough specs to run the AI stuff.

 

[spcopsmac21]

I switched to the S24 Plus. No huge tumor notch, just a small hole punch. And all the "Apple Intelligence" features they showed last week are already on my phone today. Each to their own!

Exactly. Apple doesn’t innovate anymore. They wait for everyone else to do it and they swoop in and act like they were working on it the whole time.

Apple lost its magic when Steve Jobs passed. He wasn’t the best human being, but man did he know how to keep people captivated.

 

[zorinlynx]

Is anyone else bothered by the fact that Apple Intelligence requires so many resources that it NEEDS the absolute latest iPhone to run, because that likely means it's going to slow our 15 Pros down noticeably?

I was just thinking, the models require tons of RAM too, so that means there will be less RAM available for applications. Right now, multitasking is a DREAM on the 15 Pro Max because so much memory is available. Background apps almost never get killed. I'm concerned that when Apple Intelligence fires up, it'll become like my 11 Pro Max again; you can't switch between 3-4 apps anymore without one of them constantly getting killed.

I really hope this is implemented well, or that there's at least a switch to turn the whole thing off. I'd hate for iOS 18 to be a massive regression for the performance of my 15 Pro Max. Right now I'm happier than I've been in a very long time with the performance of my phone. I don't want that to change for at least 3-4 years!

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Phones and computers are mature tech; people know that, and don't care about upgrading often anymore. That's not an Apple thing, it's a technology thing, and it's across the board.

That's why companies are focusing on services, because the growth-via-hardware party is over.

Exactly, and no matter how much it’s screamed from the mountain tops people don’t seem to get it.
“Apple is boring now, why doesn’t the phone look completely different every year like Android”.
Then, if you actually go look at android… It’s the same exact glass and metal slab with pretty much the exact same functionality.
Does the S24 really look or work much differently than last year’s S23?

 

[Biro]

So, 15 & 15 plus models won’t even be able to create genmoji’s?

From your keyboard to God’s screen.

 

[krspkbl]

I don't care what they say but it's definitely a way to tempt you to upgrade to a newer model. We're talking about the 3rd richest tech company in the world so yeah they want you to buy their products lol

That said, it's criminal that only the Pro/Max support it. I don't care about any 14 series phone but all 15 phones should at least run it in some capacity.

Anyway, anyone who has ever ran an AI program knows they need a LOT of RAM, storage space, and for mobile devices potentially good battery life. We can rule out the battery life since the 15 Plus arguably has better battery than the Pro Max. We can debate all the live long day about the difference between 6 and 8GB but let me tell you that AI programs will use all the RAM you can throw at it. A device might have 30, 50, 80GB of RAM and if the AI is powerful enough then it won't be enough. Doing AI stuff on my PC uses ~40GB. I know some that use 70GB. AI ran by major companies on their servers can use RAM into the hundreds of GB.

Storage space is also an issue. Pro Max only comes with minimum of 256GB. I don't think this is as much of a problem but AI models can take up tens, if not hundreds/thousands, of GB. We don't know what the storage requirements are for Apple's model.

In a way I get they need to draw a line but I think they are being too harsh...and greedy. I am quite sure they could get this running on 15/15 Plus but maybe it's too much hassle.

It is what it is. Like every other iPhone you'll not always get the latest and greatest features. "Accept it or buy a new iPhone" - Tim Cook

 

[spcopsmac21]

For all those complaining about Apple's legacy history, I'd suggest venturing over to the world of Android, where on most phones you buy, you have every reason to expect it will not be able to upgrade any new versions of Android's OS. It might be able to make iterative (.x) upgrades, but not major upgrades. Android has a very long history of being extremely fragmented for this reason. Compare Android's fragmentation to iOS? No comparison. A few minutes of research revealed that as recently as two years ago, Apple's then latest iOS was being used on 81% of ALL iPhones being used at that time, and over 90% of phones four years old and newer, and Android's latest OS was being used on 26% of Android phones, with all the rest split between multiple older versions of Android, because those phones cannot run the latest version of Android. Apple has, in almost all respects, done a remarkable job at creating a market where the vast majority of its phones are all able to run the exact same software, even though older phones obviously cannot be expected to take advantage of all the new features created after the phone was created.

This is true. For low end throw away android phones.
But flagship phones costing $500-1500 have a steady tract record of getting software support and OS updates.
Your statement is about 40% true.

This isn’t 2011 anymore.

 

[Abazigal]

If it weren’t scheme to sell the 15 Pro versions, they would have given the regular 15s good enough specs to run the AI stuff.

It's very likely the specs for the iPhone 15 was decided way before Apple planned to work on Apple Intelligence (we are probably looking at 1 year prior to it being announced last September), much less knew what specs was needed to properly support it.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I agree to an extent. But people will upgrade if the devices LOOK different, if the design has changed.
Saying people have stopped buying things because the technology has matured might be true from a tiny segment of the market. But most of the market it’s low end consumer devices that NEED replaced every year or two.
And people see Apple doing the same thing over and over again. And they look at competitors doing wild new things with folding laptops, convertible laptops, phones with gaming features and built in coolers with LEDS.
The average consumer is half brain dead. They want flashy, they want new, they want different.
And Apple has a very hard time pulling any of that off.

AI isn’t going to be the boon of wealth Apple thinks it’s going to be. I can guarantee that. When they are requiring it to be on specific devices because of ram constraints people will look elsewhere is this is what they want in an AI.
Or they will simply download a cloud based AI off the App Store and continue to use their older devices.

When I saw the 15PM announcement I was pondering if this was an April fools joke. And when the 16 rolls around and it looks EXACTLY the same, I’ll just double down on my 14PM. If one of my kids needs a new phone sure, they will get the cheapest thing Apple has to offer. Because Apple doesn’t innovate anymore.
They have went stagnant. We get a tiny glimmer of innovation every 3-5 years.
Then it’s back to the same tired formula.
I love Apple, I grew up with Apple.
But that “magic” died with Steve.

I disagree. I think people have simply lost interest in new phones. it's about as exciting to many people as buying a new washing machine. They don't want a new device, regardless of what it does.

My manger, a very highly educated woman in her 30s, was livid the other day that she needed to upgrade her 8 Plus. She didn't want the hassle of moving to a new phone.

For many, smartphones=boring necessary tools and upgrading isn't exciting anymore.

 

[unregbaron]

The new ones must be in production right now, it being June?

 

[dugbug]

What did he think they were going to say? "Yeah, John, that's exactly why we did that." Gruber is such a shill. I mean, good on him--he has managed to make a tremendous amount of money while doing nothing except occasional reviews on his blog, dropping raw and unhinged political screeds, and an elitist, patronizing podcast where is he is joined by The Little Apple Bloggers. You know, the little Apple podcast dorks who somehow had Blue Checkmarks in the Twitter days despite having like, 2,000 followers.

Switch to decaf

 

[Krypton Deer]

I will happily use ChatGPT/CoPilot available today on my iPhone and laptop. Same goes with any company-supplied AI programs. But I will not upgrade my personal iPhone merely for Apple Intelligence. I am a bit frustrated by this but there are many solutions available so Apple will not get me this time.

 

[lkrupp]

I accept the explanation of the three Apple executives instead of the goofball conspiracy theories being presented in this thread by persons of questionable knowledge or expertise.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Exactly, and no matter how much it’s screamed from the mountain tops people don’t seem to get it.
“Apple is boring now, why doesn’t the phone look completely different every year like Android”.
Then, if you actually go look at android… It’s the same exact glass and metal slab with pretty much the exact same functionality.
Does the S24 really look or work much differently than last year’s S23?

You miss the point.
People buy new cars because they look different have the style or color change.

That’s more than half the reason people buy or upgrade to new things.
They are visually pleasing.

Just because you don’t do these things ( we all know you do )
Does not mean the rest of vein fickle humanity doesn’t.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the same glass or metal they used before.
People upgrade for CHANGE, for fashion, for excitement. People change and their tastes in things change.

And this is literally most of humanity.

 

[tobybrut]

Considering Apple doesn’t really need help to get people to upgrade their iPhones but they sell an order of magnitude fewer Macs and iPads, it makes sense this isn’t just a ploy to sell iPhones. It would make more sense if they limited it to M3 or M4’s only to get people to upgrade their non-iPhones. Remember that people upgrade phones a lot more often than they upgrade everything else. It makes no sense if it were just an arbitrary limit.

AI was just a blip on the radar a couple of years ago and we all know iPhones are planned out at least two years in advance. Word on the street is that Apple didn’t even become interested in AI until Craig Federighi played with some Microsoft AI tools sometime in the latter part of 2022. That wouldn’t have given Apple much time to plan ahead. I suspect they got lucky when it came to iPads and Macs in that they are able to handle their new LLM’s or SLM’s for on-board processing, but are unlucky they didn’t plan far enough ahead on iPhones and give them enough RAM to handle the load.

 

[krspkbl]

I disagree. I think people have simply lost interest in new phones. it's about as exciting to many people as buying a new washing machine. They don't want a new device, regardless of what it does.

My manger, a very highly educated woman in her 30s, was livid the other day that she needed to upgrade her 8 Plus. She didn't want the hassle of moving to a new phone.

For many, smartphones=boring necessary tools and upgrading isn't exciting anymore.

Totally true. I love my tech but I can't even justify upgrading as much anymore (right now). I see my phone as a daily tool and I hope I can keep it for as long as possible.

On a side note, AI is probably the most exciting tech advancement in recent times. If you asked me 2 years ago what I thought about AI i'd be like who cares but it's crazy how quick it's moving. It's only going to get better and better. We're going to see the specs of all our devices (phones, laptops, desktops, tablets, tvs, etc) increase significantly. It's going to breathe some "life" into more than just smartphones. I have a 15 Pro Max which is of course the best iPhone you can buy but I think it'll be obsolete much quicker than say a iPhone 12 or 13 when you consider overall lifespan.

Take the MacBooks for example. Apple still sell them with 8GB base RAM. Right now it seems like 8GB is the MINIMUM to get these AI/Apple Intelligence features. They are going to need to bump base RAM up and storage will need to go up as well because models will likely add a significant size to OS requirements (if they plan to use on device processing).

 

[spcopsmac21]

I accept the explanation of the three Apple executives instead of the goofball conspiracy theories being presented in this thread by persons of questionable knowledge or expertise.

They want to make money.
There are already AI co pilots available all over the internet.
The conspiracy geeks don’t have a vested interest in boosting their share footprint.
Those executives do.

 

[Ameer_1]

There doing everything except increase the battery life.

 

[MilaM]

Off course it's RAM. Buhahahah.

Well, the joke is on all "legacy" iPhone users, who will have more incentives to upgrade earlier rather than later.

I'm so happy I refrained from buying the 15 Plus this year. I was very tempted because of the USB-C port and a larger screen.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Considering Apple doesn’t really need help to get people to upgrade their iPhones but they sell an order of magnitude fewer Macs and iPads, it makes sense this isn’t just a ploy to sell iPhones. It would make more sense if they limited it to M3 or M4’s only to get people to upgrade their non-iPhones. Remember that people upgrade phones a lot more often than they upgrade everything else. It makes no sense if it were just an arbitrary limit.

AI was just a blip on the radar a couple of years ago and we all know iPhones are planned out at least two years in advance. Word on the street is that Apple didn’t even become interested in AI until Craig Federighi played with some Microsoft AI tools sometime in the latter part of 2022. That wouldn’t have given Apple much time to plan ahead. I suspect they got lucky when it came to iPads and Macs in that they are able to handle their new LLM’s or SLM’s for on-board processing, but are unlucky they didn’t plan far enough ahead on iPhones and give them enough RAM to handle the load.

That’s what they get for being cheap on their most profitable segment.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Off course it's RAM. Buhahahah.

Well, the joke is on all "legacy" iPhone users, who will have more incentives to upgrade earlier rather than later.

I'm so happy I refrained from buying the 15 Plus this year. I was very tempted because of the USB-C port and a larger screen.

The joke will be on Apple, because almost no one, outside of enthusiast, will upgrade for the new AI features.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Off course it's RAM. Buhahahah.

Well, the joke is on all "legacy" iPhone users, who will have more incentives to upgrade earlier rather than later.

I'm so happy I refrained from buying the 15 Plus this year. I was very tempted because of the USB-C port and a larger screen.

Well there are so many other AI models out there now you can just use online or download like an App.
No one needs to upgrade to apples model.

 

[vertsix]

Real answer:

Gruber: "So it's not a scheme to sell new iPhones?"

Joswiak: "Ah, ****. You caught us. Please believe this nonsense mouth babble I'm about to drop."

 

[krspkbl]

Well there are so many other AI models out there now you can just use online or download like an App.
No one needs to upgrade to apples model.

there is a difference between on device and "off device" AI.

small models for on device can be a few GB to ~40GB. models than run on servers can be ~300GB - 1TB in size.

Off device is of course slower and if you care about privacy then you need to worry about your data being sent to servers. Ideally on device processing is the way to go but if we want that we need to accept that hardware specs are going to increase significantly in terms of ram, storage, and maybe battery.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Totally true. I love my tech but I can't even justify upgrading as much anymore (right now). I see my phone as a daily tool and I hope I can keep it for as long as possible.

On a side note, AI is probably the most exciting tech advancement in recent times. If you asked me 2 years ago what I thought about AI i'd be like who cares but it's crazy how quick it's moving. It's only going to get better and better. We're going to see the specs of all our devices (phones, laptops, desktops, tablets, tvs, etc) increase significantly. It's going to breathe some "life" into more than just smartphones. I have a 15 Pro Max which is of course the best iPhone you can buy but I think it'll be obsolete much quicker than say a iPhone 12 or 13 when you consider overall lifespan.

Take the MacBooks for example. Apple still sell them with 8GB base RAM. Right now it seems like 8GB is the MINIMUM to get these AI/Apple Intelligence features. They are going to need to bump base RAM up and storage will need to go up as well because models will likely add a significant size to OS requirements (if they plan to use on device processing).

Yes, any device over $750.00 USD should have had 16GB starting back in about…. 2013.
To say Apple is behind the curve is an intelligent observation.

OR. Apple knew this was coming for years now. And planned all of this.
Just another reason to force an upgrade cycle.