It's Glowtime decoded: what Apple's next event invite means for the iPhone 16

It's showtime! No, hang on, in Apple's world 'It's Glowtime'! That's the tagline of the official next Apple event invitation – scheduled to take place Monday 9 September this year, and here's how you can watch it live – when the iPhone 16 series is fully expected to be revealed. 

So what is the invitation's wording and, just as importantly, visual language all about? Here I'll decipher what's on show and how that reflects what we're likely to see from the iPhone 16 launch event, in the context of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference 2024, which took place back in June.

1. Siri and AI

"It's showtime" has become something of a movie cliche. But it's still a very relevant phrase and defines the commencement of an important moment. On a simple level that's the reason for Apple paraphrasing such an expression for its next event. 

"Glowtime", however, can be taken in a different context, but also quite literally: when Apple Intelligence (AI) was revealed as part of WWDC this year, it made clear that Siri would be front and centre, the glowing interface activated by squeezing the side action button.

2. More power

Siri is integrated into all the best iPhones, of course, but it's only those top-tier models – namely the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and, by assumption, the next-gen 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max too – powerful enough to take full advantage of Apple Intelligence's features.

The glowing Apple symbol in the event invitation could therefore also be a reference for new levels of power, owed to new and more powerful chips incoming within Apple's arsenal. I think Apple is going to need to shout about how much better its AI can be than its Android competitors' offerings, too. 

However, while the competition is waxing lyrical about NPUs (neural processing units) and TOPS (tera operations per second), I suspect Apple will choose to express any new chipsets' power potentials in more demonstrative ways. Like the visual of the glowing Apple logo, I expect to see what we're talking about rather than just hear a bunch of big numbers reeled off.

3. Movie magic?

But let me roll back to that "It's showtime" paraphrasing for a minute too. As it's a movie-associated expression, there is some argument that the iPhone 16 range will also be the best yet for capturing and playing back such content. Ideal for watching the best streaming services' latest shows and movies.

While there aren't any visual cues specifically about cameras or screens in the invitation, I have wondered how long it'd be before all of Apple's iPhone models caught up to current standards – i.e. 120Hz refresh rate panels, even for the 'entry' models. 

It could be that cameras will improve capture, formats such as ProRes could become more widely available across the iPhone range, and high dynamic range (HDR) fast-refresh screens could become the norm. 

If Apple Intelligence is to roll out across the full iPhone range in its fullest capacity – the entry and Plus models included – then the base entry specification will need to see an uplift. I'm not expecting this to actually happen, though, it's far more speculative.

4. An iPad Mini?

From one speculation to another, I may as well delve in a bit deeper here. There is, after all, a rumour regarding a new iPad Mini being launched. But, like I say, it's very much a rumour only – seeing as the iPhone Mini fell by the wayside, there's certainly no guarantee it remains on Apple's radar any longer.

The only reason I raise that in context to the It's Glowtime event invitation is because of the styling of those colourful swooshes around the Apple logo. There's something very hand-drawn about them, as if by Apple Pencil, which conjures images of Apple's best iPads. Yes, I know, it's a loose association – but it could be that unlikley "one more thing"  moment for this year's event.