Are We Looking at the First iPhone Built for AI?
The iPhone design cycle seemed to have shifted from two years to three in the recent years. But with the 17 Pro, Apple has completely redesigned the chassis and used a new material, after a brief two year stint with titanium. Is this an intentional move to switch back to a two year design cycle as Ben Thompson speculates? Or did something else cause this change?
A bit of context for those that are not obsessively tracking internal details about iPhones (I am aware of my problem). Apple had gone from using stainless steel to titanium for their Pro phones in 2023, touting the many benefits of titanium. It was stronger and lighter than stainless steel. The good thing about titanium is that it allows Apple to finally resume its pursuit of making an ultra-thin phone, while maintaining enough tensile strength so that the phone does not bend easily. There was an initial bit of drama around the thermals of the 15 Pro resulting in a firmware update and a statement by Apple that it was not the titanium that was causing the issue. While true, reviews around the 15 Pro's performance under sustained workloads have been mixed (some stress tests favored 15 Pro while others showed more throttling). To Apple's credit, they tweaked the design with the 16 Pro, with up to 20% better sustained performance. I'm not saying titanium caused "bad" thermals, more that it is definitely the case is that aluminum is way better at spreading heat around the phone compared to titanium. The iPhone 17 Pro reflects this, with a claimed up to 40% better sustained performance vs the 16 Pro.
iPhone case designs are believed to be locked eighteen to twenty-four months before launch day. And we heard that Craig Federighi became interested in AI after playing with it over Christmas of 2022. If we assume that was around the time that Apple started taking AI seriously, it was already too late to change the design of the 16 Pro, which would've been locked between September 2022 and March 2023. It does give Apple ample time to design the 17 Pro from the ground up for AI.
My hypothesis is that titanium was a choice made before the AI hype reached a stratospheric level, and before Apple started to take it seriously. The choice at the time might have seemed fine. Apple sacrifices a bit of thermal headroom in exchange for being able to make the iPhone Air, and later the iPhone Fold (perhaps as soon as next year). AI forced a change in the design two years in, bringing us the first iPhone truly[1] built for Apple Intelligence[2].
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