On Friday, iPhone 17 landed at stores across the globe with queues in Beijing to London. However, in addition to the launch buzz, Apple is feeling the heat to make up its mind and is battling with doubts about its plans to use artificial intelligence, alongside rising competition.
On display are the products such as the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air alongside new Apple Watch and AirPods products.
Meanwhile, the products can be pre-ordered in the U.S. as early as September 12. The international launch is especially important because Apple is entering the expanding competition in foreign markets.
Apple’s competition in the Chinese market
China is one of those markets, as people spent their hours and even nights waiting in lines to acquire the new iPhone.
This morning, Liu was the first one to arrive in the queue at the Apple flagship Store in Sanlitun, Beijing. He reported that he was in the queue since 11 p.m. local time on Thursday to get his share of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
He added that he is thrilled about the new color and exterior design of the smartphone, which Apple claims has enhanced the heat dissipation of the phone.
Interestingly, Liu also reported that he has switched to Apple over Huawei in recent years, indicating that he likes using an iPhone in everyday life and as entertainment.
Another individual, who preferred to remain anonymous but said his surname is Yang and he had been a Xiaomi user previously, said that he had been waiting to acquire the new iPhone and liked its operating system.
Liu and Yang believe that a significant number of Chinese residents will purchase their first iPhones this year because of the new features, such as increased internal storage.
Assuming such a trend materializes, it would be good news to Apple, which has since lost market share in China to other firms like Huawei and Xiaomi.
The group that once dominated the smartphone market conceded only 10 percent of the Chinese smartphone market to the iPhone-maker today, after years of ruling the region, including local companies, Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi, and others, as per the figures provided by Omdia.
The indicators have been favorable to the iPhone 17 series in China so far. The first minute of iPhone 17 series preorders on the inside of JD.com, one of the leading Chinese ecommerce platforms, passed the volume of the first-day preorders of the iPhone 16 series of last year, the company announced last Friday.
JD.com announced on Friday at 10 a.m. local time that the iPhone 17 trade-in sales were four times higher than the corresponding time in the previous year.
Different marketplaces
The redesigned iPhone 17 also found enthusiastic reception in the much smaller but wealthier market of Singapore, where long queues were witnessed outside Apple stores all over the city.
Two of the Singapore nationals, Iman Isa and Daniel Muhamed Nuv, are young professionals who stood hours in line at the Apple store in the Marina Bay mall to purchase the iPhone 17 Pro, which they claimed was their first new phone in ages.
Referring to the new design, longer battery life, and better camera, they stated that the new phones have something to keep them loyal to the Apple system.
In addition to pre-order and customer reviews, the first demand of the iPhone 17 series is mostly favorable in the global market, according to Le Xuan Chiew, a research manager with Omdia.
Le Xuan Chiew added that the iPhone 17 base model itself has exceeded expectations, with the prices at the initial release being the same as those of their predecessor, even though they were upgraded in terms of memory storage.
Customers walking into Apple stores in Singapore had earlier been considering picking up some of the new AirPods Pro 3 by the company, with the live translation feature being a key point of sale.
The queues in London were significantly longer than those that occurred with the release of the iPhone 16 last year. Also, people seemed much more interested in the higher-end products this time around, the Pro and Pro Max models.
One customer named Jasmine said, “For the last five years, I’ve been in a pattern of constantly upgrading my phone, because every year Apple is bringing something new to the table. I just love having that experience of Apple every year.”
A guy named Michael, who said he was a content creator, opined that he was attracted by the battery and camera.
He further adds on the thin Apple offering version, “I thought about going for the [iPhone] Air, but I just don’t know whether or not the battery is going to be able to hold up. And that single camera? I don’t know, it’s just a little bit off-putting on the back.”
Apple and its strategy
An effective launch of the iPhone 17 would help allay the fears of investors in Apple following a relatively low-profile launch of its artificial intelligence capabilities that were launched late last year.
Last week, a “Squawk Box Europe”, Chief analyst at CCS Insight, Ben Wood, praised the recent product launches at Apple but claimed that the company now had to deliver on artificial intelligence.
