The new iPad Pro is more powerful than its predecessor and extremely thin. Apple aims to extend this design to its other devices.
In summary:
- Apple plans to launch thinner devices.
- The new and super-thin iPad Pro serves as the model.
- Not all AI features from WWDC will be available with iOS 18 immediately.
In recent years, Apple’s devices have often become thicker rather than slimmer. The MacBook Pro needed more space for a larger battery, the Apple Watch Ultra required additional room, and the iPhone became thicker to accommodate a better camera.
Apple intends to reverse this trend towards thicker devices, as reported by renowned analyst and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. The company started with the super-thin iPad Pro, which Apple introduced last May. Despite its thinner design, the device is as powerful as a desktop PC, according to Gurman.
“Apple has figured out how to make its devices thinner again while adding important new features,” writes the journalist. He learned that Apple plans to release a significantly thinner iPhone 17 next year. Additionally, the company aims to make the MacBook Pro and Apple Watch thinner.
Some AI Features in OS 18 Will Only Arrive Next Year
However, not all AI features that Apple introduced at its developer conference WWDC a few days ago will be released immediately, Gurman continues. Instead, the features, collectively called Apple Intelligence, are more of a roadmap for what will come at the end of 2024 and in the first half of 2025.
The reasons for this delay are manifold. Apple wants to take more time to train its AI models in languages other than English. Additionally, the company needs to expand its cloud infrastructure to prevent outages when too many users access the AI features simultaneously.
One of the features Apple does not plan to release with the first version of iOS 18 this autumn, according to Gurman, is the option for Apple’s voice assistant Siri to use contextual information.
For example, if a work meeting is rescheduled and the user wants to know if they can still make it to their daughter’s theatre performance, the software needs to know where both events are and calculate travel time based on traffic conditions.
ChatGPT Won’t Be Available in the First iOS Version
These are all pieces of information that could be scattered across various apps on an iPhone: calendar, text messages, emails, maps. Apple’s AI model would have cross-system access to this data and should be able to interpret it correctly.
Like these Siri improvements, support for additional languages and regions through Apple Intelligence is expected to be available only in 2025, according to Gurman.
