As has been the case with iPhone releases since the dawn of time, there is a swirl of rumors about hardware and software. Apparently, in September, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL<\/a>) will release a high-end version of the iPhone 18. Or maybe some versions of the iPhone 18 won’t be released until spring 2027. Or maybe Apple will release the expensive iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the Ultra (which will be foldable) in three months. Or something. <\/p>\n What the market and investors are really waiting for is not hardware. It is the AI upgrades of Siri and Apple Intelligence, with full integration with Google Gemini. Apple management says this integration will solve its problems of being slow to the AI market. It is paying Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG<\/a>) $1 billion a year. That seems cheap, but Google gets its AI in what may eventually be hundreds of millions of Apple products. <\/p>\n Based on everything Apple has said, its iOS 27, which will be in full release this fall, will be its AI superstar. If it is broadly accepted, investors can breathe a sigh of relief. Apple will finally have a horse in the AI race. With its massive hardware distribution, it will jump to a level of distribution close to, or above, the market leaders like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Claude, or Grok. <\/p>\n Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks \u2014 and Apple didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today<\/a>. <\/p>\n Every iPhone generation has a better camera, a better and faster chip, a lighter and more durable case, a shorter charge time, and longer battery life. None of these will be enough for Wall St. Apple recently moved ahead of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA<\/a>) as the world’s most valuable company. It only holds that spot if Apple Intelligence and Siri are consumer AI home runs. <\/p>\n Apple’s AI software probably cannot pull ahead of the most advanced consumer-centric AI downloads. And it does not have to. It has to be slightly better than good enough. <\/p>\n After Apple failed to release an AI-powered iPhone 17 and an iOS AI-powered system last year and early this year, and after many of its top AI engineers left for rivals, Apple has sat on the AI sidelines for a year. However, it still has enough fans to stay in the global lead of smartphone unit sales and, perhaps, enough to impress investors. <\/p>\n Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks \u2014 and Apple didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/a> hurk \/ Wikimedia Commons <\/p>\n