Siri may be improved by the iPhone 16 gaining better microphones
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that the microphones in the iPhone 16 range will be markedly improved, and says that it’s part of Apple’s plans to blend more AI into Siri more effectively.
Most rumors about the iPhone 16 concentrate on camera upgrades, and Apple has appeared to be behind the industry on AI. However, Ming-Chi Kuo‘s latest report based on supply chain information claims a radical improvement is coming to Siri on iOS 18 — and iPhone 16 will gain new microphones to help.
“My latest survey indicates that all iPhone 16 models will feature a significant upgrade in microphone specifications,” writes Kuo. “In addition to better water resistance, the key specification upgrade is a better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to boost the Siri encounter significantly.”
“Apple reorganized its Siri team in 3Q23 to blend AIGC/LLM [Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content, Large Language Model],” he also reports. “Voice input will be the key interface for AI/AIGC/LLM on mobile smartphones, so strengthening Siri’s hardware and software features and specifications is the key to promoting AIGC.”
While this is the first known report of planned improvements to the iPhone’s microphones, the claim of improving Siri fits with certain recent reports. It’s been claimed that Apple is spending around $1 billion per year to evolve AI that it intends to use to make Siri better, possibly in 2024.
