Apple Intelligence is a new set of AI features from Apple that are rumored to help push users to upgrade to the iPhone 16. It is expected that this feature set will be released with the iPhone 16 next September.

However, last week Apple Intelligence first appeared as a test on iOS 18.1 beta1. So this feature will not be available in the official version of iOS 18 next September. Therefore, many speculate that the iPhone 16 will be launched later.

Denying the above rumors, in his latest Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman said that the iPhone 16 is still on schedule despite the release of the October Apple Intelligence feature set.

Although the company had previously postponed the launch of the iPhone due to unfinished software (the iPhone 4s was launched in October 2011 instead of June due to Siri and iCloud not being ready).

But this time Apple has chosen a different strategy and will not delay the product launch date. Gurman revealed: the iPhone launch date will be the same as last year, probably September 10. And users will need to upgrade their hardware to iOS 18.1 to use Apple Intelligence.

In the July 29 beta, Apple Intelligence supported features like word processing and call recording. Siri also got a new interface, but ChatGPT was not available. Gurman commented that these features still failed to meet expectations.

Although the feature set is still being improved and tweaked before its wide release, even if it's released in October, users will still have to wait until next year for Siri to be finalized to take full advantage of its capabilities.

To be a leader, Apple needs to release more meaningful features more quickly, Gurman said.