Apple beyond iPhone 16: AI, between health care and mass market challenges

What made the event at the Steve Jobs Theatre in Apple Park noteworthy was not so much the presentation of the iPhone 16, the first to be enhanced with AI made in Cupertino, but rather the clear presentation of "its AI strategy, which will take time to spread across the customer base," and the two announcements in the health care sector, with the new functionalities of the Apple Watch and AirPods2. These "highlight how, in the medium term, Cupertino is targeting the market and value-added services in the medical field," analyzed Edoardo Narduzzi, CEO of Mashfrog, on The iConomy by Class CNBC.

The new AI-powered Apple era, centered around Silicon A18, is based on "a proprietary platform that integrates third-party solutions and will eventually incorporate the features of Apple's app ecosystem" to tackle Cupertino's real challenge: capitalizing on the AI advantage in the B2C market.

Narduzzi emphasizes that Apple "continues to be the queen of international financial markets" and is facing a challenge that goes far beyond the smartphone. It is focused on its primary market, the United States, where it must compete with Chinese brands and Samsung. "It has a difficult position to defend" in the Chinese device market—the second-largest in the world—where it ranks as the sixth manufacturer, competing with companies that do not act as followers but lead the revolution of AI-powered smartphones and tablets in the mass market. Europe, where profitability is lower and there are technological and regulatory delays on AI, is more in the background.

"Whether Apple can successfully implement its strategy will become clear in the coming quarters. But it has the human resources, technical expertise, financial potential, and access to data collection and processing that place it in a unique position to leverage the AI wave applied to business in the coming years."

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