Apple Intelligence Is a Bust but It's Had One Major Benefit

Summary

• Apple Intelligence has so far underdelivered with unimpressive features, some of which probably won't arrive until iOS 19 launches later in 2025.
• Although disappointing, Apple's focus on AI resulted in a hardware boost to accommodate the new tech, which benefits multi-tasking and performance,
• Apple Intelligence could also bring about a bump in storage for Apple devices, as the AI models take up more room in future revisions.

Apple has a long history of being late to the party with products or features. When they do arrive, however, they're usually implemented extremely well. Apple didn't make the first MP3 player or the first smartphone, but it introduced excellent versions of both.

The same really can't be said for Apple Intelligence, however. Apple was not only late to the party with AI features, but when they did arrive, they were frankly a little embarrassing. But while Apple Intelligence may not have been what we were hoping for, it's provided an unexpected benefit for people who've bought recent Apple products.

Apple Intelligence Overpromised and Underdelivered

It's fair to say that Apple Intelligence has been a huge disappointment. Apple seemed to be caught cold with the sudden explosion of generative AI chatbots, but most people assumed that it would only be a matter of time before Apple introduced its own AI features that "just worked" in the good old Apple tradition.

When Apple Intelligence was announced, there was some genuine excitement, even if what Apple was showcasing wasn't particularly groundbreaking. Most exciting was the news that after years of stagnation, Siri was finally getting a much-needed upgrade. Apple told us that Siri would be able to understand personal context, take action within and across apps, and the company even produced expensive adverts showing off what it could do.

However, it now seems highly unlikely that this supposed iOS 18 feature will arrive as part of iOS 18 at all. In fact, it might not even appear until next year. We're going to be hearing Apple tell us about the amazing things that iOS 19 will be able to do long before we've been given all the features that were promised for the current version of iOS.

I Rarely Use the Apple Intelligence Features We Have

Even the Apple Intelligence features that have been released have been mostly underwhelming. I don't think I've touched Image Playground since I first toyed with it when it was released, I can count on one hand the number of times I've used Writing Tools, and Clean Up is useful but very limited.

The only feature I've used regularly is Siri with ChatGPT, and even this is incredibly clunky, with Siri having to turn to a rival AI chatbot to get help with most tasks. The ability to ask questions about what's on the screen is really its only saving grace.

Apple has dropped the ball here. Whatever features Apple announces for iOS 19, there will be plenty of people wondering if they will actually deliver.

The Unexpected Consequence: More RAM

Despite the disappointment of Apple Intelligence, however, there has been one unintended outcome that is of genuine benefit to people who are buying the latest Apple Devices. Because Apple Intelligence requires a significant amount of RAM to run, Apple has been forced to include more RAM in its products than it would likely have done otherwise.

The company has been keen to promote new products as "designed for Apple Intelligence," whatever that might mean. This has required that Apple include more RAM in products so that they are powerful enough to run the AI features locally, rather than in the cloud. It's not just iPhones, either; all of Apple's new Macs now come with at least 16GB of RAM.

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This is the one saving grace of Apple Intelligence for consumers. Without the RAM requirements of Apple Intelligence, Apple would have been unlikely to include as much RAM as it has, if past performance is anything to go by.

Apple Has Historically Been Tightfisted With RAM

In the past, Apple has always tended to include the bare minimum amount of RAM for devices to work without falling down. Since Apple controls both the hardware and software in its devices, it's been able to optimize performance without requiring huge amounts of RAM. Previous iPhone models have often been able to match the performance of other phones that have included more RAM.

For example, the standard iPhone 12 came with 4GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy S20 released in the same year had 8GB of RAM, as did the Google Pixel 5. If you compare each generation of iPhone with the leading contemporary Android phones, Apple's handsets have always had less RAM.

All that changed with the iPhone 16, however. It comes with 8GB of RAM, which puts it on par with the Samsung Galaxy S24 that was released earlier the same year. Apple's RAM has finally caught up with the competition. Even the iPhone 16e, Apple's supposedly low-cost version of the iPhone, comes with 8GB of RAM as standard.

Why More RAM Matters

Does the amount of RAM in Apple products matter? If the iPhone was capable of matching the performance of competitors that had more RAM, is the additional RAM in current models that big of a deal? In a word: yes.

The more RAM you have in your iPhone, the better it is able to handle multitasking. You can run more apps at the same time without them having to reload when you switch between them. You can also run more intensive apps such as GarageBand with other apps running in the background without it having such a big impact.

The benefits are even clearer for Mac users. The more RAM that your Mac has, the better it can handle resource-intensive applications such as video editing or music production software. It also allows your Mac to run multiple applications at the same time without a noticeable drop in speed. Bumping the RAM in a Mac from 8GB to 16GB can also bring quality-of-life improvements, such as making it feel smoother and faster to switch applications or open files.

Will Apple Intelligence Fix Apple's Storage Problem Too?

There's another potential unintended benefit of Apple's focus on Apple Intelligence. The software required to run Apple's AI features takes up a significant chunk of storage. Installing Apple Intelligence requires 7GB of storage space, which is 3GB more than the entire storage of the original iPhone.

This is without the inclusion of features such as the new updated version of Siri that is still yet to arrive, so it seems almost inevitable that the amount of room that Apple Intelligence will take up is only going to increase.

Could this mean that Apple will finally overcome another criticism that has often been hurled at it in the past, and stop selling devices with paltry amounts of storage space? The iPhone 16 stuck with the same 128GB as the iPhone 15, so the impact wasn't immediate.

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However, the iPhone 16e comes with a minimum of 128GB, which is twice the amount of the iPhone SE 3, so there are signs that this may be the direction we're headed. As more Apple Intelligence features are added, and the amount of space required increases accordingly, Apple may well be forced to up the storage capacity as well as the amount of RAM, which can only be good for consumers.

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Even if Apple Intelligence has been a major flop, it hasn't been all bad news. Thanks to the RAM-hungry AI features, Apple has been forced to stop scrimping on RAM and give its products a similar amount of RAM to its competitors. It's a welcome boost for Apple owners. Now all we need is the updated Siri we were promised.

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