Fool me once, it’s embarrassing. You fooled me twice, shame on you.
“Stupid” might be too strong a word, but Apple is certainly marketing hard at selling us something it isn’t quite ready for yet: Apple Intelligence, the company’s various artificial intelligence capabilities. I have been working on this.
There’s nothing wrong with promising features that are still in development. Companies do it all the time. But it takes a lot of courage to center an entire marketing campaign around something that won’t be completely ready for Showtime until next year.
Apple first did this in September when it introduced the iPhone 16 series. The company said the phone was built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence, despite rumors that it did not initially plan to include AI features in the phone.
The iPad mini, like the iPhone 16, ships without AI features. Image credit – Apple
Then again, with Apple Intelligence on the way, Apple wasn’t exactly making misleading claims by touting its new small tablet as perfect for the AI era. However, the only special thing about the iPad mini is its promised set of AI features.
It looks the same as the last iPad mini released in 2021. It has the same screen specs, same camera hardware, and same sensor as its successor.
Two notable hardware upgrades are the A17 Pro chip and 128GB of storage. As you might expect, the improved performance specs will help the device run AI features smoothly.
AI support isn’t the only reason the iPad mini has the A17 Pro. After all, the previous generation mini also had the most advanced chip at the time.
But my main point remains the same. If Apple wants to sell a product (or two) based on features, those features need to be ready at launch.
Sure, Apple Intelligence is coming in the next few days, but that’s just the first part of the feature. More exciting features won’t arrive until the end of the year, and the rollout will only be completed in March.
By overemphasizing raw AI capabilities, Apple is just showing us that not only have their recent hardware improvements been nothing to write home about, but their software strategy is also a mess.
What’s more, Apple’s biggest fans don’t seem to care that the company’s promised features aren’t ready yet. Other users, especially those in China, will be waiting indefinitely. nevertheless, iPhone16Sales are starting to look promising.
Perhaps Apple can get away with doing whatever it wants as long as it has a cult following behind it.
