Apple's foray into AI terminals further accelerates the landing of edge-side AI and redefines the usage scenarios of edge devices, driving the hardware upgrade cycle. On the product structure side, 100-300 billion yuan products generated operating revenue of 401/1288/60 million yuan respectively, and the company's overall sales volume reached 18,000 kiloliters, a year-on-year increase of 28.10% in 2023.
Apple's senior vice president, Craig Federighi, stated that Apple will also collaborate with third-party models outside of OpenAI, such as Google's Gemini model.
This model shows that Apple is confident in creating and utilizing its own models.
Apple's previous hardware upgrade cycle occurred during the 5G upgrade in 2020-2021. On October 13, 2020, Apple launched its first 5G phone, the iPhone 12 series. From the quarterly shipments in 2020, it can be observed that the year-on-year growth rate began to increase significantly, which continued until the third quarter of 2021. In terms of annual shipments, Apple shipped 203 million iPhones in 2020 (an increase of 12 million from the previous year), and 236 million iPhones in 2021 (an increase of 33 million from the previous year). Additionally, the iPhone has entered another stock cycle.
The trend of AI-driven hardware upgrades is stronger than that driven by 5G upgrades because Apple has a relatively strong advantage in AI (on 5G, there is no essential difference between Android and Apple; both implement higher network transmission rates). In addition, AI may have a greater attraction to the target consumers of consumer electronic products. Institutions are bullish on the iPhone upgrade cycle among a vast user base. The iPhone is expected to have strong momentum in 2025, with shipments of 225 million+/240 million/240 million+ in 2024/2025/2026, entering the shipment growth channel.
Nomura Orient International Securities believes that as generative AI infrastructure gradually consolidates, the application layer landing is penetrating from the cloud to the edge, and end-side applications such as mobile phones and PCs are gradually unfolding. Apple's global ecological scheduling capabilities are expected to help it develop rapidly in the edge-side AI field. Apple's foray into AI terminals further accelerates the landing of edge-side AI, redefining the usage scenarios of edge devices, and driving the hardware upgrade cycle.
Industry insiders are bullish on the iPhone upgrade cycle among a vast user base. The iPhone is expected to have strong momentum in 2025, with shipments of 225 million+/240 million/240 million+ in 2024/2025/2026, entering the shipment growth channel.
Nomura Orient International Securities believes that as generative AI infrastructure gradually consolidates, the application layer landing is penetrating from the cloud to the edge, and end-side applications such as mobile phones and PCs are gradually unfolding. Apple's global ecological scheduling capabilities are expected to help it develop rapidly in the edge-side AI field. Apple's foray into AI terminals further accelerates the landing of edge-side AI, redefining the usage scenarios of edge devices, and driving the hardware upgrade cycle.
Sinolink Research report states that Apple's hardware products have a vast user base, and AI is expected to empower hardware products, accelerating the upgrade cycle. They remain bullish on core companies in the Apple industry chain.
Related companies in the Apple iPhone industry chain:
Apple iPhone industrial chain related companies: Byd Electronic (00285), AAC Tech (02018), Cowell (01415), Fit Hon Teng (06088).