iPhone 17 goes on sale globally as Apple faces China rivals and AI doubts

The iPhone 17 deed store shelves worldwide connected Friday, drafting agelong lines from Beijing to Singapore.

But beyond the motorboat buzz, Apple is nether unit to beryllium itself, grappling with questions astir its artificial quality plans arsenic good arsenic expanding competition. 

One of those markets is China, wherever Apple customers waited for hours and adjacent overnight to get their hands connected the caller iPhone 

First successful enactment astatine the Apple flagship Store successful Sanlitun, Beijing, this morning, was Liu — helium did not privation to beryllium identified by his afloat sanction — who told CNBC that helium had been queuing since 11 p.m. connected Thursday for his accidental to prime up the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

He said helium was excited astir the smartphone's caller colour and exterior design, which Apple says has improved the phone's vigor dissipation. 

Products connected displays for the archetypal clip see the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air, arsenic good arsenic caller Apple Watch and AirPods models.

While they were disposable for preorders successful the U.S. from Sept. 12, the planetary motorboat holds peculiar value arsenic Apple takes connected increasing contention successful overseas markets. 

Notably, Liu besides said helium has changed to Apple from Huawei successful caller years, seeing the iPhone arsenic amended for regular beingness and entertainment. 

Another person, who wished to beryllium identified lone by his surname, Yang — an erstwhile Xiaomi idiosyncratic — said helium had been waiting to get his hands connected the latest iPhone, preferring them for their operating system. 

Both Liu and Yang expect galore Chinese residents to bargain their archetypal iPhone this twelvemonth owed to caller features, specified arsenic larger interior storage. 

If that inclination were to cookware out, it would beryllium invited quality for iPhone, which has mislaid marketplace stock successful China to players specified arsenic Huawei and Xiaomi. 

After years of enactment successful the region, Apple present lone holds 10% of the Chinese smartphone market, trailing section players similar Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi and others, according to data from Omdia.

So far, the signs are affirmative for the iPhone 17 bid successful China. Last Friday, JD.com — 1 of China's largest ecommerce platforms — saw the archetypal infinitesimal of iPhone 17 bid preorders surpass the first-day preorder measurement of past year's iPhone 16 series, the institution reported. 

On Friday morning, the institution besides said that iPhone 7 trade-in income were 4 times higher than the aforesaid play past year.

In the overmuch smaller but affluent marketplace of Singapore, the redesigned iPhone 17s were besides met with fervor, with agelong lines forming extracurricular Apple outlets crossed the city. 

Iman Isa and Daniel Muhamed Nuv, 2 young professionals successful Singapore, had some queued up hours up of unfastened astatine Apple's outlet successful Singapore's iconic Marina Bay promenade to bargain iPhone 17 Pros, which they said were their archetypal caller phones successful galore years. 

Citing caller designs, longer artillery beingness and an improved camera, they said that the caller phones connection capable to support them loyal to the Apple ecosystem.

Lines were adjacent longer astatine an outlet successful Singapore's Orchard, the city-state's superior buying center, with a abstracted queue for radical who had preordered the iPhones. 

Based connected preorder times and user feedback, the archetypal planetary request for the iPhone 17 bid appears mostly positive, said Le Xuan Chiew, a probe manager astatine Omdia.

The iPhone 17 basal exemplary successful peculiar has outperformed expectations, arsenic the pricing astatine motorboat has remained unchanged from its predecessor contempt upgrades successful representation storage, Le said. 

In Singapore, customers arriving astatine Apple outlets had besides been looking to nab immoderate of the company's caller AirPods Pro 3, citing the product's unrecorded translation diagnostic arsenic a large selling point.

A palmy iPhone 17 motorboat could assistance reassure Apple investors aft a acold from breathtaking rollout of its artificial quality features which began precocious past year.

Speaking to CNBC past week, Ben Wood, main expert astatine CCS Insight, lauded Apple's latest merchandise launches, but said that the institution needed to present connected artificial intelligence. 

"There is nary question that Apple needs to present connected AI," helium said, noting that the institution had "dropped the ball" past twelvemonth by making large promises that failed to materialize. Such plans person present been pushed to adjacent year. 

"Apple has to drawback up [in AI], but close now, I deliberation they've got capable runway to beryllium capable to header successful the intervening period."

- CNBC's Eunice Yoon contributed to this report