The secret weapon of the next iPhones will be the microphones
From the looks of it, the 2024 it will be the year of artificial intelligence accessible directly from smartphone: Samsung he is preparing it for the new ones Galaxy S24and also Apple, a little late in this sector, he intends to implement it on the next ones iPhone 16 (read also: the best smartphone apps dedicated to AI).
This was revealed by a recent report by the well-known Mark Gurman from the pages of Bloomberg, which is echoed in an article by the Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuoin which the secret weapon to make this function extremely competitive is revealed: i microphones.
But what does it mean? Just over two weeks ago, Gurman had launched a preview, according to which the Apple company would be working on a version of for iOS 18 Siri empowered by models Of large language (LLM). Apparently, this would lead to some AI functionality exclusive for the new iPhones directly connected to your voice assistant, which you would need microphones improved for “listen better” the user.
In fact, he writes Kuo in his article on Medium, that is the key to promoting generated content by artificial intelligence lies in strengthening the characteristics and the specifications Siri hardware and software, but at the same time the integration of large language models into the voice assistant will rely heavily on a better processing of voice input.
So Apple is reportedly preparing a major microphone upgrade for the iPhone 16with a better relationship signal-to-noise, a specific key that “will significantly improve the Siri experience“, says Kuo, in addition to reporting how the new microphone will also have better resistence to water.
Kuo also states how the selling price of the new microphones in the iPhone 16 (ASP, average selling price) will increase between 100 and 150%, which can only benefit the economies of the two companies.
In short, even if the launch of the new iPhones is almost a year away, it seems increasingly likely that they will be equipped with exclusive AI featuresapparently linked to a very close interaction between Siri and the app Messages, as well as a Apple Music, Pages (for text generation) e Keynotes.
In this regard, Kuo states how Apple reorganized its Siri team in the third quarter of this year to integrate artificial intelligence and a large language model in its phone, but it’s still unclear whether the processing will happen on the device or in the cloud.
And just to give an indication of the aspirations of Apple, unusually silent on this issue, we remind you of a report from some weeks ago according to which the apple house would spend 1 billion of dollars a year for AI research, with some of the company’s biggest executive names overseeing its development. This includes Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and Strategy AI John Giannandrea and senior vice president of services Eddy Cue.