Apple Intelligence for China: It should be ready by summer

Apple’s schedule for the implementation of Apple Intelligence in China seems to be. As the Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman writes in his newsletter on Sunday, everything continues to look after “middle of the year”. It was probably there with iOS 18.5; The first details in iOS 18.4 that indicate implementation would already be found. “If there is a delay, Apple iOS 18.6 – known as” G ” – has ready for summer.”

Apple Intelligence in China is different

In contrast to the USA, Europe and other markets for its AI system, which Apple had developed with iOS 18.4, Apple Intelligence works differently in China. Apple is forced by the Chinese government to involve a local partner. This should probably be Alibaba after there were also discussions with other providers. Most recently, Apple boss Tim Cook praised the Chinese AI model Deepseek. Apple is also said to have looked at this.

Apple Intelligence is to continue to use the company’s local AI models on the device in China, with extra census mechanisms being installed for China, as Gurman writes. These are to be supplied by Alibaba. Alibaba could also be used as a chatt replacement for Siri. Apple will also use Baidu Inc. for Visual Intelligence and Siri instead of Openai and Google.

Eastern and western Apple Intelligence

Apple hopes to boost the iPhone sales in China with its AI system, they had recently fallen again. Devices bought in China can only use the local AI, but not the western Apple Intelligence. The group has apparently implemented a hard geo blockade.

Apple has not yet publicly commented on his China-Ki-confirmation by the Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai was considered unusual in mid-February. He had emphasized how hard the selection process was until the Alibaba model Qwen was on the iPhone. Among other things, Baidu could help Apple, it is already a default search on iPhones in China, where Google has retired from the market for years.