The past year was a weird one for Apple, as it primarily focused on maintaining its smartphone market dominance while dipping its toes in XR and AI. Regulators from around the world came knocking on the doors of Cupertino’s walled garden and we saw the first cracks with iOS 18’s release. The iPhone 16 series brought more refinements that garnered enough interest from consumers but fell short of initial expectations.
The M4 series chips continued to offer blazing-fast performance for Macs and iPads, while the new AirPods 4 delivered great audio and active noise cancellation without silicone ear tips. It wasn’t all sunshine in Cupertino’s world as Apple Intelligence and Vision Pro can safely be categorized as flops. Let’s take a deeper dive into the best and not-so-best from Apple in 2024.
Winner: iOS 18
Third-party app stores? Alternative default apps? RCS messaging? All of those are now part of iOS, at least in some regions. Features that once seemed a distant mirage to iPhone users are here whether Apple likes it or not. The European Commission has been a driving force for change, as are regulators in other parts of the world, and 2024 marked a big turnaround for Apple’s most popular operating system.
The features gap between iOS and Android is slimmer in 2024 than it was a few years ago. You can even rearrange the icons without any grid limitations, something that should have been a feature on iPhones from the start.
You’re free to set alternative default apps in for your browser, camera, gallery and messages apps, which is a big win for those opposing Apple’s walled garden. We’re glad to see iOS is now a freer and more customizable operating system, and we’re looking forward to what comes next.
Loser: Apple Intelligence
You’ve probably seen those hilarious Apple intelligence notification summaries, and they’re kind of indicative of the feature as a whole: it’s half-baked. In a surprisingly un-Apple manner, Apple intelligence was marketed as a key feature for the iPhone 16 series without being there on day one.
At the time of writing, over three months since its official launch and with iOS 18.2 now out, Apple Intelligence is still missing several key features. Perhaps the more pressing matter is that the AI features remain exclusive to a handful of English-speaking countries. Users in Europe and China will have to wait until April 2025, which is a major letdown. Mass deployment struggles aside, Apple’s AI features feel rudimentary and behind those of competitors like OpenAI and Google.
Winner: iPhone 16
The baseline iPhones have been some of Apple’s best sellers for years, and it’s no different this year. The iPhone 16 is arguably the best non-Pro iPhone ever with a more capable A18 chipset, 8GB RAM, an autofocusing ultrawide camera and the new Camera Control button.
Add
Read More