Apple Targets 10 September iPhone 16 Launch Event – Report

Apple is shortly to unveil its latest iPhone portfolio, plus a number of wearables including Watches and AirPods to the world.

Bloomberg’s noted Apple leaker Mark Gurman, citing people familiar with the situation, reported that Apple is planning to hold its biggest product launch event of the year on Tuesday 10 September.

Apple usually unveils its latest iPhones in September, but a 10 September event could mean that the new iPhone 16 handsets reach stores on 20 September, Gurman noted.

10 September event

Bloomberg’s Gurman admitted that while the timing of the launch event has not yet been officially confirmed, the company is making preparations for that date.

Last year Apple at its Wonderlust event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California on Tuesday 13 September 2023 had launched the iPhone 15, which for the first time came without the lighting port which had featured in all iPhones since 2012 – in favour of a USB-C port.

At the same time, Apple had also unveiled the Apple Watch Series 9, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

The iPhone 16 portfolio is expected to deliver the largest software upgrade for the iPhone, which will include artificial intelligence features (dubbed ‘Apple Intelligence), which had first announced back in June at its WWDC 2024 developer conference.

Apple is very late to the AI party compared to its competitors, and signed a deal with OpenAI to bring the ChatGPT chatbot to its devices including iPads, iPhones, Vision Pro headsets and Macs.

Because of the new AI functions, analysts are expecting strong uptake for the iPhone 16 series, but this may take a while to be realised in Apple’s financial results.

China decline

Apple’s Tim Cook will be hoping that these AI functions will convince iPhone users holding onto their older iPhone models to finally trade in and upgrade.

The iPhone is still Apple’s principle money maker, but the firm has been facing market concerns about falling iPhone sales in one of its core markets, namely China (Apple’s third largest market).

In its latest third quarter results, Apple revealed that overall sales of the Apple iPhone had fallen 0.9 percent to $39.3bn.

Apple sales in China declined 6.5 percent, wider than expectations of a drop of 2.4 percent, in the face of intense competition from cheaper domestic smartphones from the likes of Vivo, Oppo, and Huawei.

This was an improvement from the 8.1 percent China decline in the previous quarter, and came despite Apple discounting the price of its handsets in that market.

UPDATE: After publishing the article, Apple sent out “It’s Glowtime” media invite, confirming the launch will take place a day earlier on Monday 9 September.