Analysts stated that the new capabilities driven by artificial intelligence in Apple's flagship iPhone, were just as expected.

A wide range of new AI capabilities, including enhancements to its Siri speech assistant and a plethora of smart camera functions targeted at professional video editing, were unveiled by the massive Cupertino-based company. The upcoming months will see a steady rollout of these features.

According to analysts, Apple's earlier announcement of its intentions for a push into artificial intelligence, dubbed "Apple Intelligence," established expectations that were mostly met by the new iPhones and AI features. However, several experts cautioned that the slow introduction of AI capabilities might put off first-time customers, particularly in light of fierce competition from rivals like Samsung and Huawei, whose flagship products already have AI functions.

China is one of Apple's largest markets, and the country is still without an AI partner. The corporation has been battling a drop in Chinese iPhone sales for more than a year.

Apple also debuted updated models of its smart watches and AirPods in addition to the iPhone.

The new AI features in the iPhone 16 were deemed by Jefferies analysts to be in line with expectations; nonetheless, they pointed out that higher trade-in prices were likely to attract users and fuel an upgrade cycle.

In light of the lack of significant hardware upgrades for the new models, the broking claimed Apple needs to attract users to upgrade to the new iPhone with more competitive trade-in rates, particularly in China.

According to Jefferies, sales will only accelerate gradually as a result of Apple's AI capabilities, and there is little chance that the company will see a quick spike in sales.

Jefferies is not as optimistic as some of the others on Wall Street, with only a price target of $205 for Apple. This is below its current share price of $219.

Evercore analysts claimed that Apple's latest revelations, particularly in the area of AI, were a "more polished version" of what the company had shown at its June WWDC.

According to Evercore, Apple's phased introduction of AI might "elongate" the time between iPhone replacements while maintaining positive overall sales growth.

The broking stated that it anticipates a further rise in iPhone sales in 2025 and 2026 and that the recently released Apple Watches and AirPods would help revive the stagnating wearables market.

Evercore holds a PT on Apple of $250 a share.

Wedbush analysts were much more upbeat, predicting that the new AI features will lead to significant sales increase in the "next 12 to 18 months."

Wedbush anticipates that increased sales would propel Apple's stock price to a $4 trillion market capitalisation by 2025.

Wedbush hiked its price target on Apple from $285 to $300.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)