of Apple The new AI can increase its sales the biggest revenue generator: iPhone.

Apple intelligence, first announced on Monday at Apple's annual developer conference, significantly improves existing iPhone features. Siri, for example, can use information from various iPhone apps to answer more complete questions and send questions that can't be answered directly in ChatGPT. There are also new AI-generated emojis coming to the iPhone.

But in the fine print at the end of yesterday's AI announcement, Apple pointed out that although its AI software update will be free, it will only be available on two iPhone models: the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max.

Connected: Apple is expanding what the iPhone can do

Analysts now say artificial intelligence could be the reason Americans, who are still clinging to older iPhones, decide to upgrade.

The experts said Reuters that the new iPhones Apple is expected to announce later this year could be the company's biggest upgrade cycle since the iPhone 12 in 2020, which had 5G as a selling point.

“What we saw today was more compelling than anything we've seen since,” DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria told the publication.

The most popular iPhone in North America was the iPhone 11, according to a 2023 MOVR market REPORT — so many phone owners in the US who have older models won't be able to use Apple's AI when it becomes available this fall.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told Reuters that about 270 million iPhones had not been upgraded in the past four years.

Ives predicted that more than 15% of Apple's existing customer base will level off with the newest iPhone that Apple releases this fall.

^{Photo by Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto via Getty Images}

Apple's iPhone 14 was the best-selling smartphone in the world last year, according to Counterpoint Research.

iPhones count for more half of Apple's total revenue in the second quarter of 2024.

Apple has brave in other markets recently, including mixed reality with the Apple Vision Pro headset.

Connected: What's next for Apple After Vision Pro? Home robots