Apple unveils iPhone 16 amidst Huawei's surprise triple-folding smartphone release

Apple on Monday kicked off an event to unveil its iPhone 16 and lay out artificial-intelligence features of the flagship device, although Apple could be upstaged by a triple-folding smartphone unofficially released by China’s Huawei hours earlier.

Apple’s event at the tech giant’s Apple Park headquarters started at 10 a.m. PDT (1700 GMT). Huawei has scheduled an official announcement of its Mate XT phone on Tuesday in China.

The Chinese company’s website showed on Monday that it had garnered more than 3 million pre-orders for its Z-shaped tri-fold phone. This underscores Huawei’s ability to navigate US sanctions and solidifies its position against Apple in China, where consumers are hankering for more AI features and are willing to pay for them.

“The Chinese market is hungrier for AI features than the US market,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO and principal analyst at Creative Strategies. For Apple, “it will be very difficult to bring it to China immediately, so they’ll be going off the merits of the hardware.”

Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence at its developer conference in June, its take on generative AI that can conjure text, images and other content on command.

But these upgrades will take time to reach consumers.

Apple Intelligence features are expected to launch in a software update to the iPhone and iPad operating system likely in October and a full upgrade of Apple’s voice assistant Siri is likely to come only early next year, according to media reports.

Apple Intelligence must be approved by Beijing in order to be released in the Chinese market. In July, OpenAI blocked access to ChatGPT in China, a move that could impact the chatbot’s integration into Siri. Apple has not announced an AI partner for China.

IPhones accounted for more than half of Apple’s $383 billion sales last year, and the new devices are an important update for the Cupertino, California-based company that is betting the AI feature will drive consumers to upgrade amid a slowdown in iPhone sales.

In China, Apple aggressively slashed prices earlier this year, prompted by government restrictions and increased domestic competition.

The iPhone 16 lineup will be the first Apple smartphones designed around these AI features, though those will also be available on iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the top-end versions of the previous-generation devices. New versions of the Apple Watch and AirPods are also expected.

“The software side, and how Apple frames it, is the biggest question,” said Bajarin. “Investors will look for if it’s compelling enough to have a larger-than-normal upgrade cycle.”

Rivals including Alphabet’s Google are also showcasing AI features to try to upend Apple’s dominance in the high-end smartphone market.

Google, developer of the Android operating system which competes with Apple’s iOS, traditionally announced its Pixel smartphones in the autumn. This year, it pushed the event to August ahead of Apple’s announcement.

Google focused on AI features including Gemini Live, which allows users to hold live voice conversations with a digital assistant. Many of the AI features Google announced were also rolled out to the Android-based devices made by manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola.

“The question is who is going to be the first to combine a truly personal AI assistant with knowledge and information that is accurate and personalized,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst for TECHnalysis Research.

Apple has so far shared a timeline for the release of Apple Intelligence only in the United States, where it is slated to launch on compatible devices in the autumn.

In June, one week after its developer conference, Apple said it would delay the release in Europe due to European Union tech rules.