In his weekly Bloomberg newsletter, Power On, Mark Gurman has clarified that, Even though Apple Intelligence won't launch until October presumably with iOS 18.1, Apple won't delay the release of the new iPhone 16 models and will continue with the same launch deadlines as other years.
Last week, Apple confirmed with the release of the beta that Apple Intelligence would be delayed until the arrival of iOS 18.1, which directly caused the initial feature set to not be available in the initial release of iOS 18 in September. Apple Intelligence is the main attraction of the operating system update to make the upcoming iPhone 16 models more palatable to customers, especially considering that currently only the high-end iPhone 15 Pro models support these features.
However, in the past, Apple has delayed the launches of new iPhones because the software features were not yet ready, so it is not trivial to confirm by Gurman that no delays are expected this year. For example, the iPhone 4S was delayed until October because the new Siri and iCloud features wouldn't be ready for the traditional June launch at that time. Although that example was over 10 years ago, it's still worth considering. Gurman noted the following:
Currently, Apple usually releases the iPhone in September. However, this year with Apple Intelligence you face a similar dilemma. This time, however, everything indicates that Apple is taking a different approach and will not delay the launch of the new hardware until the services are ready. I have been informed that the iPhone launch will occur around the same date as last year; A quick look at the calendar suggests that September 10 is a likely date. Users will need to update their new hardware to iOS 18.1 in October to start using Apple Intelligence.
Apple Intelligence launched in beta last week with some initial features (only in English and for users outside the European Union as you already know), such as writing tools and the generation of Memories in Photos. The new Siri interface was also included, although most of the Siri improvements and ChatGPT integration are not yet present. Other important features, such as Genmoji and Image Playground, are also missing from the current beta version.
Personally, I think Apple is right not to delay the launch. of the devices and more when betas of iOS 18.1 are already being tested with Apple Intelligence. This way, maintains the presentation and release cycle, which commercially helps users to have more appetite. There's nothing left, just 35? days until the iPhone 16 comes to light, which will be the first iPhone that Apple launches after announcing Apple Intelligence. What do you want?