Apple's iPhone 16 launch event: What investors are watching

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 16 launch event — dubbed "It's Glowtime" — will kick off this afternoon in Cupertino, California. Yahoo Finance Tech Editor Dan Howley joins Catalysts to discuss what investors and consumers can expect from the tech giant, including the next generation of Apple products to some hints about upcoming AI software rollouts.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video transcript

Apple's big iphone event kicks off this afternoon.

There's a lot riding on this after a tough week for tech that saw the sector down over 6% and the NASDAQ off 4%.

So how does Apple have to deliver today?

That's the big question.

And joining us now from Cupertino, California awaiting the start of the big event.

Our very own.

Dan, how Dan, what's the vibe pulse check out there?

How are people feeling?

I guess it's only 7 a.m.

So they're still getting coffee.

Yeah, people still getting coffee around here.

They're still setting up to uh prepare for the event as you can see behind me.

But really what I think most people are expecting here are kind of the, the usual with the exception of the Apple A I.

So the usual, let's just level set that uh for new iphones, it's going to be the iphone 16 iphone 16 plus uh pro and then Pro Max, we're also expecting new Apple watches the se the series 10, the 10th anniversary edition of the Apple watch.

It's been 10 years since Apple originally announced it.

And so this would be a big year for them.

And then the watch ultra really the big big difference is going to be for that, that middle one, the series 10 expect to be two new sizes a 45 millimeter up from 41 and a 49 millimeter up from 45.

But reports say that they're not necessarily going to be larger as far as footprint goes, it's going to be a thinner body design.

So don't expect to take up too much screen real estate.

It's not going to be one of those big statement watches that you might see folks have.

And then the last thing that we're expecting as far as hardware goes is updates to the airpods.

So those will be entry level, the base airpods and then the mid tier airpods, those are supposedly getting active noise cancellation, which would be a good fit for something that costs $169.

The highest end the airpods pro though would still have those silicon tips, the bad boys that I'm wearing right now and then they're also going to have new airpods max.

Those are the ones that are over the ear that the cans kind of, those are expected to get some updates with some better sounds.

But obviously we want to talk about Apple Intelligence and the big changes there that's going to be the kind of series of A I rollouts that Apple is going to have.

Yeah, there have been on Wall Street some mumblings, rumblings rather about how Apple hadn't kept up with the likes of Microsoft and Google.

Now, they're expected to start rolling some of those out.

Although reports indicate that, that they might not necessarily come out with the new phones.

It might take them until October 2025 to get most of the A I features they announced in June into phones.

All right, Hallie.

Good luck out there.

We of course, are gonna be tracking every word from that announcement.

We look forward to your live coverage on Yahoo Finance later today.