A look back at Apple’s news and headlines from the week, including the latest iPhone 16 Pro specs, fast charging for the iPhone 16, iPhone sales targets, longer-lasting Macs, Vision Pro predictions, the unveiling of Apple Pay, and Google Photos tools.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple over the past seven days. You can also read my weekly Android news roundup here on Forbes.
iPhone 16 Pro gets improved camera
Apple is reportedly planning to bring x5 optical zoom to the iPhone 16 Pro. Last year, it was only available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the benefits of the tetraprism lens will come to both Pro models before 2024. There’s no sign of an upgrade to the lens, but it will offer an improved experience on the 16 Pro.
“…analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, citing a recent earnings call with Apple lens supplier Largan… In the call, a Largan spokesperson said that “some flagship specifications will be extended to other models in the second half of 2024,” presumably referring to the upcoming iPhone Pro models.
“Apple is Largan’s largest customer, and Largan is also Apple’s largest lens supplier,” Kuo said. “Therefore, the quote likely refers to the fact that the new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max in 2H24 will have a tetraprism camera (while only the iPhone 15 Pro Max had this camera in 2H23).”
(Medium via Tom’s Guide).
A visitor checks out the brand new Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (Photo by Justin … [+]
How fast does your iPhone fast charge?
The following iPhone models could get faster charging speeds with the switch to 40W wired charging, according to supply chain details. It’s worth noting that many high-end Android smartphones offer 120W wired and 50W wireless charging. Apple’s improvement is welcome, but still a far cry from the average phone:
“While the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can charge up to 27W with a wired charging and up to 15W with MagSafe wireless charging, this year’s models will reportedly take things a step further. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will apparently support 40W wired charging and 20W MagSafe wireless charging. Of course, those are peak speeds and won’t be reached for a very long time while charging.”
(GSM Arena).
Apple’s iPhone 16 sales target
Apple has set ambitious internal goals for its upcoming iPhone 16 family of devices. Tim Cook and his team are looking at adding AI to increase sales by 10 percent year-over-year… even with the launch of Apple Intelligence delayed until the first quarter of 2025:
“The company told suppliers and partners it is targeting about 10% growth in shipments of the new iPhones compared to their predecessors, a person familiar with the matter said, after shipping about 81 million iPhone 15s in the second half of 2023. The company is confident the addition of some Apple Intelligence features with the iPhone 16 will help drive demand when the model goes on sale later this year,”
(Bloomberg).
Your Mac will last longer
New research data from CIRP shows that the average consumer is holding on to and using their Mac for longer. This will impact sales, with longer life cycles delaying consumer upgrades, which will reduce the size of the market in the short to medium term.
“For the U.S., the research shows that the majority of Mac customers – 56% – now keep their laptop or desktop for “3 years or more,” up 16% from 2020. All other lifecycle lengths were classified as “3 years or more.” The number of users keeping their Mac for 2-3 years fell from 19% to 13% in 2020. The number of users keeping a Mac for 1-2 years fell from 23% to 19%, and the number of users keeping a Mac for less than a year fell from 19% to 13%.
(9to5 Mac).
IDC’s Vision Pro Forecast
As Apple begins selling the Apple Vision Pro in select European territories, IDC reports on sales of Apple’s headset, and the new world of VisionOS isn’t proving to be as popular as Apple had hoped:
“The $3,500 Vision Pro mixed reality headset has sold fewer than 100,000 units since its U.S. launch in February, with domestic sales down 75% in the current quarter, according to market analyst IDC.
(Bloomberg).
Apple Pay faces European competition
Apple will open up NFC-based payments in Europe to allow third-party services to use iOS without being forced by Apple to use Apple Pay. The European Commission had previously flagged potential anti-competitive concerns, which Apple has now addressed by opening up the NFC hardware to other financial apps:
“The EC Market tested the suggestions and after some consultation, Apple modified its proposal to make it easier for developers to encourage users to change their default payment app. It also removed the requirement for developers to have a Payment Service Provider (PSP) license or a binding agreement with a PSP to access the NFC input.”
(The register).
And finally…
Moving data between cloud services just got a whole lot easier this week, as photos can now be moved between the two services from Google and Apple. The software and usability
“Starting today, Apple and Google are expanding their direct data transfer offerings to let Google Photos users move their collections directly to iCloud Photos. This complements and supplements the existing transfers first enabled from iCloud Photos to Google Photos and meets a core Data Transfer Initiative (DTI) principle of reciprocity.”
(Data Transfer Initiative).
Apple Loop brings you seven days of highlights every weekend right here on Forbes. Be sure to follow me so you don’t miss any future coverage. You can read last week’s Apple Loop here , or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.