The new iPhone 16, unveiled on Monday, is the first Apple product to be built with artificial intelligence in mind. But the company faces challenges in the form of Huawei in China and regulation in Europe.

California tech giant Apple on Monday officially unveiled the iPhone 16, its first smartphone specially designed to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI).

“The next generation of iPhone has been designed for Apple Intelligence from the ground up,” said chief executive Tim Cook at the product launch, referring to Apple’s own in-house AI platform which was announced earlier this year.

“It marks the beginning of an exciting new era,” he said, teasing “breakthrough capabilities” such as the ability for AI to conjure images and other content on command.

According to media reports, Apple Intelligence features are also expected to be rolled out to recent iPhone and iPad models in a software update in October, but with voice assistant Siri initially only available in US English.

Regionalized English is expected to follow in December before a full Siri upgrade with languages including French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese is rolled out in early 2025.

Apple vs. Huawei

Apple’s move into AI is a key pillar of its strategy to compete with Chinese rival Huawei, which made its own new triple-fold MATE XT smartphone available for pre-order hours before Apple’s event.

By Monday night, its website showed it had already taken over three million pre-orders for the Z-shaped device, underlining Huawei’s ability to navigate US sanctions ahead of its official launch on Tuesday.

“The Chinese market is hungrier for AI features than the US market,” commented Ben Bajarin, CEO and principal analyst at the California-based Creative Strategies market research company.

But Beijing is yet to approve Apple Intelligence for release on the Chinese market, nor has Apple announced an AI partner for China.

For Apple, “it will be very difficult to bring [iPhone 16] to China immediately,” said Bajarin. “So, they’ll be going off the merits of the hardware.”

iPhone 16: new features, new Watches, new AirPods

Those hardware features include the new A18 chip, an aluminum back and a new customizable camera button on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, while Apple also unveiled iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, titanium models with a faster chip, the A18 Pro, and enhanced AI capability.

As part of the launch, Apple also unveiled new Watches and AirPods, emphasizing their use in sporting and health environments.

In addition to improved comfort, fit and acoustics, Apple have also fitted out their new AirPods with a professional hearing-aid feature, which it has submitted for US regulatory review.

Apple targeted by EU regulation and tax authorities

Apple has already said it expects the roll-out of Apple Intelligence in Europe to be delayed due to additional regulatory checks in accordance with the European Union’s Digital Services Act.

Also in Europe, the European Court of Justice is expected on Tuesday to rule on a case which could see Apple forced to pay back up to €13 billion ($14.35bn) in tax benefits afforded to it by the Republic of Ireland, where it has its Europe HQ.

From its glitzy California event full of colourful image projections, Apple unveiled a host of its latest technologies, including the new iPhone 16 which would be the company’s first model built for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

While the new phone lineup headlined Monday’s showcase, the tech giant also shared updates to its smartwatch and AirPod lineups.

Here are the key moments from the event in case you missed it.

iPhone 16, Apple’s new AI handset

The iPhone 16 “has been designed for Apple Intelligence from the ground up,” CEO Tim Cook said during Monday’s event.

The biggest upgrade to the iPhone hardware is that the iPhone 16 has a camera button on the outside of the handset, giving users access to “visual intelligence,” Craig Federighi, the senior vice president of software engineering, said on Monday.

It is an example of how AI could be used; after clicking the camera button, you could, for instance, point the camera at a bar, restaurant, or landmark and get instant reviews or information about the place.

Other uses of AI include searching for images in your library by describing them, creating custom emojis, summarising emails and prioritising notifications.

Apple Intelligence will also upgrade Apple’s virtual assistant Siri to get it to better understand requests and give it some awareness of on-screen actions taking place on the phone, hopefully making it more useful.

How much is the iPhone 16 and when is it available?

The iPhone 16 comes in two versions, the iPhone 16, which retails from €969, and the iPhone 16 Pro, which starts at €1,229.

They are available to preorder from September 13 and in stores from September 20.

The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will also offer slightly bigger displays and feature variants of the powerful A18 chip, which gives Apple the computing power its devices need to run AI functions.

There is also a bigger boost to battery life and the performance is more powerful and efficient due to the A18 chip.

The AI smartphone race

What sets Apple apart from what’s being offered by rivals Samsung and Google? It is trying to preserve its longtime commitment to privacy by tailoring its AI so that most of its functions are processed on the device itself instead of at remote data centres.

When a task requires a connection to a data centre, Apple promises it will be done in a tightly controlled way that ensures no personal data is stored remotely.

Will it come to Europe?

It will be available in the US in English, and will quickly expand to include localised English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom in December, with additional language support – such as Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish – coming next year.

But Apple has not yet announced plans to launch in Europe due to regulatory concerns. In June, Apple cited its worries over not being compliant with Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Apple Watch upgrades

The Apple Watch Series 10 was also unveiled at the ‘Glowtime’ event on Monday, featuring a larger, and brighter, wide-angle OLED display that will allow users to better view the watch at an angle.

But Apple focused much of its presentation on the device’s ability to detect signs of sleep apnea.

The new device is also being offered in a titanium finish for the first time, joining a long-time trend in the watch industry of offering a tougher, more lightweight, and perceived higher-quality, alternative to traditional materials.

The Series 10 watch starts at €449 and will be available on September 20.

Airpods lean toward being a listening device

The new AirPods 4 series will come with an upgraded chip for better audio quality and will feature more active noise cancellation.

If you frequently lose your earbuds, the new AirPods will also play a sound when you locate them through the Find My app.

In a medically-focused update to the AirPods Pro 2, Apple said it will upgrade the devices so they can act as an over-the-counter hearing aid.

A free software update will provide the upgrade and also include options to help protect hearing and the ability to administer a clinical-grade hearing test.

The AirPod 4 model costs €149, while the version with active noise cancelling will cost €199. They both ship on September 20.