The most sincere press conference in recent years

This year, the standard version of iPhone 17 finally launched a high refresh rate of 120Hz, and the iPhone 17 Pro finally used three 48-megapixel lenses and 8x lenses... Those typical "toothpaste squeezing" behaviors that have been criticized for many years have finally "turned back to the right".

Standardized iPhone 17 is equipped with A19 chip, built with 3nm process technology, with a built-in 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU. In order to cooperate with Apple Intelligence, the chip is equipped with an optimized neural network engine, coupled with a larger content cache, the device-side generative model and large language model can run faster, and the GPU operation efficiency is 20% higher than that of A18. In terms of battery life, the iPhone 17 can reach up to 24 hours, and charge faster when the battery is exhausted, and can charge up to 50% in 20 minutes. Apple has finally used fast charging, and it can run up to 60W. The standardized iPhone 17 is the most sincere mobile phone in the audience.

The biggest highlight of this Apple conference is the launch of the iPhone Air, which is known as the "thintest iPhone to date", with a thickness of 5.6 mm. The thickness of iPhone 16 and 17 is 7.8 mm. In order to achieve ultra-thin effect in appearance design, Apple has redesigned the convex platform to accommodate the camera, chip and core system modules, and plans the rest of the space to the battery. Moreover, Apple replaced traditional card slots with eSIM technology.

It replaces the previous launch event Plus version, and the price is between the digital basic version and the Pro version. According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to start a major revision of the iPhone for three consecutive years, and this plan starts with the iPhone Air.

But can Air really afford the conference meeting this year? I'm afraid it's hard to say that there is such an effect, because the Air positioning is still too awkward and twisted.

First of all, the concept of thinness and thinness has not been implemented by Apple to the end. In order to solve the problem of short Air battery life, Apple specially designed a MagSafe power bank worth 799 yuan for 17Air. But the problem is that the price of the power bank is almost the same as the price of the iPhone 17 Pro, and the complete version of the chip has better battery life. So what is the value of this lightheartedness?

Of course, it is not impossible to pay for lightweight things. When you take out the Air, it is like slapping a credit card that "I dare to pay $200 for a thickness of 1mm" on the table. There is no need to show the balance, others have read your "payment courage".

The bigger problem is that the Air model is slightly awkward, neither a flagship product nor a wide range of consumers who pay more attention to the balance between cost-effectiveness and size. It is reasonable to assume the experimental tasks for folding iPhones and verify various high-cost materials and processes.

In addition, those who purchase Air also need to apply for an eSIM card. This means that users who want to buy iPhone Air are either originally China Unicom users or are willing to change the operator for this phone.

As for the iPhone 17Pro and iPhone 17Max, it is more like a regular upgrade, using a new cooling system to increase the battery life to 39 hours, and the back lens has been upgraded to 48 million pixels, with the sensor size twice that of the previous generation.

In addition to iPhone, the AirPods Pro 3 is more attractive because the amount is increased without the price increase. AirPods Pro 3 first greatly upgraded its most prominent noise reduction function. Its updates include ultra-low noise microphones, more advanced computing audio technology, and combined with new foam-filled earbuds, ultimately achieving 4x active noise reduction.

AirPods Pro 3 is also equipped with a new real-time conversation translation function, which not only plays translations of the other party's speech in real time, but also displays your speech on an iPhone and translates it into the other party's language to read it aloud. It can be said that Apple Intelligence has finally found the best scenario for it.

Ali Apple is in a dilemma in the international market

In the first half of the year, many people were still lamenting that Nvidia Huang Renxun, who came to China many times a year, was not easy, but in terms of the worst year, it was probably Apple's Cook. No matter how difficult it is, Lao Huang does not prevent the stock price from soaring. Lao Huang only makes less money at most, while Apple is likely to lose the dominance of a certain market.

From Apple's latest financial report, in the third fiscal quarter ended June 29, 2025, iPhone revenue was US$40.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. Despite the continued growth, competitive pressure remains. The latest report released by research institution IDC shows that in the second quarter of 2025, Apple's shipments in the Chinese market were 9.6 million units, ranking fifth, ranking behind Huawei, vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi, a year-on-year decrease of 1.3%.

You must know that this is the first time Apple has grown significantly in China under the stimulus of the country. After 7 consecutive quarters of year-on-year declines, Apple's revenue in Greater China reached US$15.369 billion in the second quarter, an increase of more than 4% from US$14.728 billion in the same period last year. Cook explained in the financial report meeting that the second quarter is the first full quarter for the impact of "national subsidy" of digital products such as mobile phones, and some of Apple's products have indeed benefited from "national subsidy".

So why did Apple's sales continue to decline? Objectively speaking, in addition to the lack of attractiveness of iPhone innovation, Chinese manufacturers are also too rolling. In addition to small folding, there are also three folds, and even folding tablets. The imaging system has long been upgraded to a 1-inch bottom, and there is also a full focal length covering various AI capture color grading.

Apple is still a global market strategy, holding only one mobile phone press conference a year, and it is somewhat unable to keep up with the changing and diversified market demand.

Recently Apple made a bold decision to produce and supply all iPhone 17 models in the US market in India. Foreign media quoted Canalys data and said that nearly 80% of iPhones in the US market are currently imported from India, and it is expected to be 18.6 million units in the first half of the year, a significant increase from 53% a year ago. Apple's mass production of new flagships in India has sent a clear signal: increase strategic investment in the Indian market and reshape its global supply chain system.

Making mobile phones in India? This was like a joke in the past, but it has become a reality with the efforts of Apple, Tata Group and Foxconn. Some production lines have introduced automated precision robots, and are equipped with advanced quality control systems with machine vision capabilities and precision calibration tools. The manufacturing skills of labor have also been greatly improved with professional training. These are the prerequisites for India to produce high-end iPhone models.

From the beginning of 2025 to April, the assembly proportion of US iPhones in India has increased from 53% to 80%. However, behind the rapid expansion, India's electronic manufacturing industry still faces a series of severe challenges, mainly focusing on the localization of supply chains, cost control and uncertainty of external tariff policies. A senior person in charge of manufacturing management within Apple's supply chain said that the shortage of high-end components (such as advanced chipsets and display driver chips) continues to exist, mostly imported from East Asia, and the main country is China.

It is not difficult to assemble a mobile phone. This has been implemented in a Vietnam factory, but it is quite difficult to localize the supply chain. Without a huge domestic demand market, assembling the local supply chain will lack market competitiveness. Secondly, localization of the supply chain means having strong technological independence and being able to participate in international competition. Although India's current market is large, its iPhone sales in 2024 are only 12 million units, while in China, Apple's annual sales in 2024 will reach 42.9 million units, and it will reach 51.9 million units in 2023.

The gap in its consumption potential is self-evident. India does not lack labor, but the current supply chain has long been refined and intelligent. Black light factories and lighthouse factories are the major trends in the future. If there were no hundreds of "fruit chains" in India, India's high-end manufacturing would probably be a long way to go.

It is also very politically difficult for Apple to bet on India. At present, the United States has clearly increased the tax rate of Indian imports from the 25% tax rate to 50%. Although this policy has not yet affected products like iPhones, as long as the dispute exists, this uncertainty will continue. Before Apple promised $600 billion to invest in the U.S., Trump kept calling on Apple not to make iPhones in India but to return to the U.S.

China obviously needs Apple, and the basis of this two-way cooperation still exists. According to Interface News, the production line of the Foxconn iPhone 17 port area in Zhengzhou is close to full production, with nearly 200,000 people working in two shifts.

Apple's "eggs cannot be placed in one basket", but now all parties hope that they will put them in one basket, and this geopolitical twist and helplessness will continue.

Apple AI landing may not necessarily save sales

At the moment when AI mobile phones are gradually becoming popular, Apple's AI strategy seems to be a bit tortuous. The Chinese version of Apple Intelligence (Apple AI) has been delayed many times and has not been launched yet. Some people believe that the reason why Apple's sales are not high is that AI has not been implemented. The effect will naturally be discounted if you use the domestic model. Only by using the full version of Apple Intelligence can the market be activated.

But is this really true? At WWDC last year, Apple's three sentences remained unrestricted with Apple Intelligence. It not only introduced large-scale model capabilities at multiple points such as text editing, photo albums, and image generation, but also claimed that it would use multi-modal large models to completely reshape Siri's user experience. It seems like Apple is leading the industry again.

But after Apple's Apple Intelligence was really launched, there were constant criticisms. So much so that Apple had to disable the news and entertainment category notification summary in iOS 18.3, so as not to accidentally write someone to death. The update speed of the new version of Siri is even more disaster. Overseas users have discovered that Siri's visual intelligence is actually just connected to Google's search photos, and the big model Siri is just a free version of the chatGPT entrance.

The Information even revealed that Apple was "fake". Many AI functions on WWDC24 have not seen even the Siri team's own people. There is no real machine, and they are all broadcasting films.

This press conference was also dull, with AI almost no display, so the market closed down 1.48% after the Apple press conference, and its market value evaporated overnight US$52.4 billion (approximately RMB 373.2 billion).

Is this still the far-leading technology giant we think? If you have an in-depth understanding of the past of apples, you will know that this is the "fruit flavor".

Well-known Apple analyst Mark Gurman posted a long article in foreign media titled "Why Apple Still Hasn't Cracked AI" (Why Apple Still Hasn't Cracked AI), revealing the swing of Apple's internal attitude towards AI, internal struggles and insurmountable technical bottlenecks.

An old Apple executive said: "In the field of AI, you have to invest first to know what the product is. This is not how Apple does things. When Apple develops products, it has long known what the ultimate goal is... Our usual strategy is to enter the market late, with more than 1 billion users, we will play steadily and eventually defeat everyone."

In fact, Cook also said this, reminding employees that Apple has never been the first to try it out: "Apple rarely becomes the pioneer of the category. Macs had PCs, iPhones had smartphones, iPads had many tablets, and iPods had MP3 players. The key is that Apple created modern versions of these product categories."

But the problem is that Apple is currently lagging behind. Apple's ability to generate AI is indeed lagging behind. According to Bloomberg, Apple has a chatbot that can handle basic image generation, but the robot is at least 25% behind ChatGPT, and its accuracy is obviously insufficient when processing most queries.

In order to provide the AI ​​products consumers really want, Apple had to negotiate with competitors such as Google, Anthropic and OpenAI. Apple is also developing a more powerful cloud computing server chip, codenamed Baltra, specifically designed to support AI functions. Meanwhile, the company is also building a new AI server manufacturing plant in Houston. Cook stressed that chip development efforts led by Johny Srouji are key to Apple's AI strategy.

It is no exaggeration to have a rapid change in the AI ​​industry. OpenAI can only take the lead in part for a short time, and the competition for the ranking of second-class big models is extremely fierce. Apple's self-developed AI is obviously not available at the card table. If you can only buy other big models, then Apple's high valuation story will break. So for a long time in the future, Apple will not give up on its own research and maintain an ambiguous relationship with leading companies.

Written at the end

Will the sales of iPhones with toothpaste burst really "burn out"? It is difficult for me to judge, but at least this time Apple has less "noble" airs and more down-to-earth configurations and products.