Apple Intelligence on the horizon: three devices that will soon turn into pumpkins

Apple Intelligence on the Horizon: Three Devices That Will Become Pumpkins

September for an Apple enthusiast is always a time of anxious anticipation and internal struggle. But in 2024, the situation has become unbearable. If before we simply waited for slightly thinner bezels or a new chassis color, now what's at stake is admission to the world of Apple Intelligence. Buying a basic iPhone 15 today looks like a deliberate decision to remain in the technological past while the entire world transitions to generative models right in their pockets. The irony is that even the most expensive phone from last year might be rendered obsolete within a month.

The main problem at the moment is that Apple is drawing a hard line between "smart" and "just phones" for the first time in a long while. iOS used to update almost identically for everyone, but with the arrival of Apple Intelligence, the rules of the game have changed. To run local language models, Apple requires a minimum of 8 GB of RAM and a powerful neural engine. The basic iPhone 15 doesn't meet these criteria. You're buying an expensive device that will officially become outdated within a month in the most important aspect of the decade — AI.

In addition to iPhones, Apple Watch Series 9 and older AirPods Max are on September's "blacklist." With the watches, it's straightforward: the Series 10 promises to be a milestone update with a new design and possibly improved health monitoring sensors that will be tightly integrated with predictive analytics. Buying the current version a couple of weeks before the new one is announced is a questionable investment, even if you're offered a discount. The situation with AirPods Max is even more comical: expensive headphones are still being sold with a Lightning connector and an old chip that doesn't support adaptive audio and advanced neural network sound processing.

So what remains on the recommendation list? Everything is stable here if your goal is working with AI and heavy tasks. MacBook Air and Pro on M2 and M3 chips remain the gold standard. Apple originally built excessive power for neural computations into the Apple Silicon architecture. Even a basic Air on M2 will handle text, code, and image generation through Apple Intelligence beautifully. If you need a computer now, you can wait for M4 in laptops, but the performance gain in everyday tasks won't be as dramatic as the transition from Intel to the M-series.

iPad Pro with M4 chip is a separate category altogether. It's a device from the future that Apple released ahead of time. Its power will be sufficient for working with any neural networks the company presents in the next three to four years. If your work involves visual content or you want the most powerful portable device for working with AI, this is a purchase you won't regret. The same applies to the iPad Air with the M2 chip — it's a reasonable compromise between price and readiness for the new era of software.

It's important to understand the context: Apple is currently in a catching-up position in the AI market. Google and Samsung are already heavily promoting their AI features, and Tim Cook can't afford to release the iPhone 16 without a "wow factor." This means the marketing machine will be shouting from every corner about why old devices are ancient history. It will be psychologically very unpleasant to realize that your phone, bought at the end of August, can't remove extra objects from photos or transcribe calls in real time.

The secondary device market is also waiting for a major upheaval. Once Apple Intelligence becomes widely available, the liquidity of models without AI support will start plummeting rapidly. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will hold their value because they support new features, but the regular "fifteen" model risks becoming the fastest depreciating smartphone in Apple's history. This is a classic paradigm shift situation where software dictates hard requirements for hardware. If you don't want to explain to a buyer on the secondhand market in a year why your phone "can't run Siri," it's better to hold onto your wallet.

The bottom line: September is a month of silence. Wait for the iPhone 16 presentation to get access to Apple Intelligence, or buy a MacBook with M-chips if you need AI power in desktop format yesterday.