Counterpoint: Apple’s AI struggles to push the iPhone 16 series into a ‘super cycle’

Market research agency Counterpoint Research released a report that states that Apple Intelligence has a limited role in boosting iPhone 16 series sales and predicts that this year will not enter a “super cycle.”

Super cycles

As Counterpoint reports throughout history, Apple’s iPhone sales have gone through 2 key “Super cycles”:

• The first time was the iPhone 6 in 2016
• The second time was the iPhone 12/13 in 2021

While these supercycles occur in different years, a common fundamental factor is “pent-up” demand.

The iPhone 6 was created because consumers wanted a bigger screen, and 2021 was created because of pent-up demand during the pandemic and an ingenious product mix strategy.

Apple Intelligence struggles to push the demand, at least in the short term:

The agency believes that in the current situation, many of the use cases provided by Apple Intelligence, although very good, solve the pain points of some users but are “almost meaningless” and not so compelling.

The agency believes that we also don’t see any “pent-up” consumer demand for GenAI features (as was the case with previous supercycles), at least in the short term.

The rollout of Apple Intelligence is also expected to be staggered in terms of features and regions so that the full impact may be felt gradually, but there will be little of a blowout.

Report – Source