Less than a year after introducing its artificial intelligence capabilities, Apple is bringing the feature to its most affordable iPhone. On Wednesday, the company unveiled an iPhone that will cost $599 and feature an A.I. system it calls Apple Intelligence. The device brings A.I. features like notification summaries and writing recommendations in English to the company’s lowest-priced iPhone model as it prepares to expand those features to other languages in the coming months, including Chinese, Portuguese and localized English for India.
The new phone, which Apple is calling the iPhone 16e, does not feature a home button or Touch ID, which have been phased out. Instead, the phone is unlocked with a facial recognition system, Face ID, which has been available on most iPhones since 2017.
The iPhone 16e is the first update to the company’s lowest-priced smartphone line since 2022, replacing the company’s iPhone SE. The cheaper phones have helped Apple get its signature product into the pockets of price-sensitive customers, who often trade up for more expensive models the next time they buy a phone.
Apple is introducing the new iPhone at a critical juncture. The company’s iPhone business has been in a slump, with sales down 2 percent from their peak of $205.5 billion in 2022. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has chalked up some of the iPhone’s struggles to the limited availability of Apple Intelligence, which was announced months before it became available and is offered only on the company’s newest models in English-speaking markets like the United States.
The iPhone 16e is 40 percent more expensive than the last iPhone SE, which cost $429. The increase means that Apple stands to collect $170 more on each of the lowest-priced iPhones it sells. That will lift total sales at a time when the number of phones it sells has been relatively stable, at about 230 million phones a year.
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