BEIJING — Apple's new iPhone 16 failed to excite investors with long-expected AI features still in test mode even as an industry-first tri-fold phone from Huawei raised the stakes in a battle to dominate the global smartphone market.

Apple's shares fell one per cent in pre-market trading on Sept 10, a day after the US tech giant unveiled its new iPhones that sport hardware-level integration for applications based on artificial intelligence but with limited changes to the external design.

The phones will use AI features dubbed Apple Intelligence to improve the company's voice assistant Siri, as well as enhance the camera.

These AI features will arrive on iPhones in beta in October. The company did not say when it would move beyond that.

"With lots of words like 'later this year' and 'early next year', the core Apple message for iPhone 16 was: Next year will be better," Needham analyst Laura Martin said in a note.

On Sept 10, Huawei showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways. The device has already received more than four million pre-orders, for which no deposit is required, according to the company's website.

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