Apple iPhone 16 launch: Key takeaways on AI and new features

[Music] Apple held their latest event yesterday in copertino where they unveiled a host of new products and features including the iPhone 16 the 16 Pro the Apple Watch series 10 the launch of Apple's new intelligence features as well but yeah here's the cold water these new products and features are they worth paying for an immediate upgrade that's the big question and here to help us is Bridget KY cnet's editor at large Bridget I mean you're making the face that says no right now I don't even have to ask the question I think it's the question we always ask because our phones are lasting longer we're holding on to them longer and you kind of go all right you know do I really need it so I I look at Apple's presentation from the angle of okay what's Apple going to focus on when it talks and so yesterday you heard a lot about some magic words battery life is better the camera and this is the reason that people upgrade and then yes there was a lot of talk about AI because that's right now in the tech space but that's not coming out when the phone lands on September 20th right some of the analyst reviews that we had seen come out and I'm not going to get too close to the you know just how Wall Street is looking at this but I mean the mode of this was largely no surprises and ultimately this looks like a software type of year that doesn't sound sexy for people who were looking to try and figure out if they should spend hundreds of dollars on a new phone you look at what Google and Samsung even present it's always like very AI heavy this this one actually was a little bit Hardware heavy up front and I think the star of this iPhone event wasn't the iPhone it was the updates to the watch the air uh pods you know this is the kind of thing where maybe people go oh I don't mind spending that to get an upgraded you know experience in health tracking with sleep apnea or having some sort of new you know uh audio experience rather than drop down you know a lot for a new phone if their phone is still good so right now people might be waiting to see what the reviews are on the phone before just immediately hitting by on the pre-orders yeah I mean look I'm inevitably going to be able to or will have to upgrade to the new airpods anyway when I lose the current pair that I had to buy because I just found one of the airpods behind uh software or a uh console in the in the apartment all that considered so I'm going to get the new airpods at some point but the Apple watch I think so some of these other devices the wearables how much do you think that the features are actually enough to tell consumers mentally like all right I'm gonna get more Health Care features in this and and is that enough to make people try to initiate that new purchasing cycle for an Apple Watch or other wearables it's been 10 years since Apple came out you know in introduced the Apple watch this one's larger screen I think it's going to be you know kind of making people's heads you know turn a little bit like oh a larger screen now oh I can uh be able to monitor all these different health issues cuz it just keeps adding up every year with the sleep apnea it's kind of giving you a heads up if you might have a problem with your breathing during your sleep but um when the price point is lower than a phone yeah people go okay maybe I'll upgrade into that and what's interesting is that the $400 new series 10 watch is larger of a screen than that high-end $800 Ultra watch so people who might have been holding on might you know kind of go in a different direction when they want the 10 instead of the ultra maybe I mean the the pricing power that Apple has has been something that's talked about by analysts a lot but from the consumer side is there enough of the wow factor to support the pricing that Apple puts into the market at this juncture right now I the the phone prices haven't changed right so people are kind of getting used to it I thought it was interesting in the messaging that you start to see in these presentations from Apple that they kind of lean more into the whole hey you know with a trade in with a trade in you you can you can get a little discount so they're kind of like letting consumers know hey if you have your old devices you know why why don't you go ahead and upgrade it's just a different way of kind of pitching the same thing but I think people still like those airpods and they might actually if they haven't upgraded in a while look at those yeah all right well a lot of it felt like a personal attack when they were saying you need to upgrade and just trade in that old phone cuz I am one of those people cuz people don't really care that much about AI right now yeah no and my phone works so that works too Bridget Cary CET editor at large joining us here in studio thanks so much for the time thanks br