iPhone’s Iffy Launch

Will The new iPhone 16 Pro & Pro Max do the trick for Apple and boost lagging sales figures?

This is the key questions markets will be asking as they face growing competition from the likes of Huawei and Samsung.

The new iPhone launch drew a lot of criticism on social media for its lack of artificial intelligence features in China, and a general lack of innovation in the design and capabilities.

The Launch was delayed for months and the markets don’t appear to like what they see.  

Mobile phone sales make up over half of Apple’s revenue and if the iPhone 16 Pro turns into a burner this might have big implications for the company.

On Weibo, China’s social platform, three of the top 10 trending topics were related to the iPhone 16 launch, with AI features a key topic. The hashtag “iPhone 16 Chinese version doesn’t support AI yet” attracted 11.33 million views and over 1,500 comments on Weibo.

On X there has been a stream of comments including one from Matt Blythe who commented “Wow, Apple is really short on creative thinkers’’, and from WeaponizedPixels who simply said “Snoozer. Can Tesla just make a phone already”.

iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max main features.

• Bigger 6.3″ & 6.9″ displays (0.2” bigger)

• 33% thinner bezels, thinnest bezels ever on an Apple product

• Grade 5 Titanium with new micro blasted texture

• 5% larger batteries, best iPhone battery life ever

• Better thermal performance

• Brighter displays

• A18 Pro chip (20% faster GPU, 15% faster CPU, 20% less power usage and 2X faster ray tracing than A17 Pro chip)

• 8GB RAM

• 48MP for first time on the Ultra Wide camera (up from 12MP)

• 12MP Telephoto

• Faster wireless charging

• 5x optical zoom on both phones

• 4K video recording at 120fps

• New exterior capture button

• 4 studio quality mics providing better audio quality

• Apple Intelligence (in USA models)

• Starting price: $999 for Pro, and $1,199 for Pro Max