Taking a look at this week’s news and headlines from Apple, including the latest iPhone 16 Pro specs, iPhone 16 fast charging, iPhone sales targets, longer-lived Macs, Vision Pro predictions, opening Apple Pay and Google Photos tools.
The Apple Loop is here to remind you of some of the many discussions surrounding Apple in the past seven days. You can also read my weekly roundup of Android news here on Forbes.
iPhone 16 Pro opts for improved camera
Apple looks set to bring x5 optical zoom to the iPhone 16 Pro. Last year this was only available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the benefits of the tetraprism lens will reach both Pro models in 2024. There’s no sign of a lens upgrade, but it will provide an improved experience on the 16 Pros.
“…analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, citing a recent earnings call with Apple’s lens supplier Largan… On the call, a spokesperson from Largan said that “some flagship specifications will be extended to other models ” in the second half of 2024, apparently in reference to future 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 will have a tetraprism camera in 2H24 (while only the iPhone 15 Pro Max had this camera in 2H23).
(Medium via Tom’s Guide).
An attendee looks at the brand new Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (Photo by Justin … [+]
How fast is fast charging on your iPhone?
Future iPhone models may get a faster charging speed by switching to 40W wired charging, according to details from the supply chain. It’s worth noting that many high-end Android smartphones offer 120W wired and 50W wireless charging. Apple’s upgrade is welcome, but far from the average phone:
“While the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can go up to 27W using a cable and up to 15W using MagSafe wireless charging, this year’s models are supposed to take things even further. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will apparently Support 40 W wired charging and 20 W MagSafe wireless charging, of course, these are the maximum rates and will not be reached for a very long time during the charging process.
(GSM Arena).
Apple’s iPhone 16 sales target
Apple has set ambitious internal targets for the upcoming iPhone 16 family of phones. Tim Cook and his team are looking to add AI to boost sales by ten percent year-over-year… even with the launch of Apple Intelligence pushed back to first quarter of 2025:
The company told suppliers and partners that it is targeting about a 10% increase 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 has grown confident that adding some Apple Intelligence features to the iPhone 16 will help boost demand when the model goes on sale later this year.”
(Bloomberg).
Your Mac is living longer
New research data from CIRP shows that the average consumer is keeping their Mac and using it longer. This will have an impact on sales, with longer life cycles pushing back consumer upgrades, which will reduce market size in the short to medium term.
“For the United States, the study shows that most Mac customers — 56% — are now keeping their laptop or desktop for “3 years or more.” That’s up 16% from 2020. All other lifecycle lengths have left users in the “3 years or more” category Those who keep their Mac for 2-3 years are down to 13% from 19% in 2020. Users who keep a Mac for 1.-2 years is down to 19% from 23%, and those who have owned a Mac for less than a year decreased to 13% from 19%.
(9 to 5 Mac).
IDC’s Vision Pro Forecast
As Apple opens Apple Vision Pro sales in a number of European territories, IDC reports on Apple’s headset sales and the brave new world of VisionOS isn’t proving as popular as Apple might have hoped:
“The $3,500 Vision Pro mixed-reality headset has yet to sell 100,000 units in a quarter since its US launch in February, and it faces a 75% drop in domestic sales in the current quarter, according to the tracker of the IDC market.
(Bloomberg).
Apple Pay Gets Come 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 previously flagged potential anti-competitive issues, which Apple has now addressed by opening up the NFC device to other financial apps:
“The EC market tested the suggestions and, after some consultation, Apple changed its proposal to make it easier for developers to encourage users to change their default payment app and removed the requirement for developers to have a license as Payment Service Provider (PSP). or a binding agreement with a PSP to access NFC access.”
(Registry).
And finally…
Moving data between cloud services just got a little easier this week, as photos can now be moved between two services from Google and Apple. Software and Usability
“Starting today, Apple and Google are expanding their direct data transfer offerings to allow Google Photos users to transfer their collections directly to iCloud Photos. This supplements and complements the existing transfers that were made to initially possible from iCloud Photos to Google Photos and fulfills a core Data Transfer Initiative (DTI) principle of reciprocity.”
(Data Transfer Initiative).
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here at Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any future coverage. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here , or this week’s edition of the Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit , is also available on Forbes.