Everything We Know About OpenAI's Planned iPhone Rival

[ChrisA]

Maybe I lack vision, but I just don't see a future where this is a success.

Yes, you DO lack vision.

Think of how a really rich person, like even Tim Cook, works. Do you really think he uses apps on a phone to get things done? No way. He tells his assistants what to do and they do it. He asks them to read his emails and tell him if there is anything important and so on. Then, he asks them toset up a meeting with XX and YY sometime next week. Same with anyone who is very productive, they do not waste their time dinking with their phone.



Phones are for "poor people" who can't afford to hire a dozen assistants to follow us around.



So what OpenAI is making is an assistant. You can ask your phone to tell you if anything is important in the pile of emails or maybe you need new shoes. Just tell it, I need shoes, find some and have them here Tuesday. But a smarter assistant would notice you need shoes and just get them for you. A truly smart phone would tell you as you are walking out the door "Hey dummy, your car keys are on the table in the living room." You would not have to ask.



Shopping list app? How primitive. The AI should just notice that someone ate the last banana.



Everyone who says "I don't want AI” thinks that AI is just a stupid chatbot. No, that was only the simplest thing they could make with the technology. The better AI just hangs out in the background and points out things you need to know or takes suggestions and goes off and does stuff for you. It knows what you would want and it knows when it needs to ask you for a decision. It is like those super smart guys that work for the billionaire; they keep out of the way and try not to be seen but are ready to help on two seconds’ notice.

 

[BeatsByTim]

Here's everything I know about about the sam altman phone: I'm not buying one lmao.

 

[jz0309]

Phones are for "poor people" who can't afford to hire a dozen assistants to follow us around.





Everyone who says "I don't want AI” thinks that AI is just a stupid chatbot. No, that was only the simplest thing they could make with the technology. The better AI just hangs out in the background and points out things you need to know or takes suggestions and goes off and does stuff for you. It knows what you would want and it knows when it needs to ask you for a decision. It is like those super smart guys that work for the billionaire; they keep out of the way and try not to be seen but are ready to help on two seconds’ notice.

The "poor people" represent 99.9% of the entire user base of smartphones - gotcha.

So you want to put your life/habits in the "hands" of AI, for the sake of AI, gotcha.

Until "AI" does something that improves my life, my personal life that is, I'll give it a try. What is offered today doesn't cut it for me.

 

[groove-agent]

So is this an Android phone or are they going to create their own OS using ChatGPT?

 

[stevemiller]

lol anyone remember the Facebook phone? Me neither.

Also I don’t come at this from any sort of Apple fandom. I’d welcome something disrupting the current market hegemony. But this ain’t it.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Eh.. I mean, there's people who think Android is good, so they may find an audience.

Android is basically just another way to do the same thing as iOS. Think Windows vs Mac. Both will do the same things just with a different look or process. This is something completely different. This won't use apps, but process vision and language and be your artificial assistant doing everything for you without you even looking at the phone. At least that's what it sounds like. The screen will probably just show your virtual assistant that talks to you and you show it things or tell it what you want done. After that it'll probably just use the screen to display the information.

 

[Sippincider]

Welcome, OpenAI. Seriously.
(Maybe we’ll get a full WSJ ad again.)

 

[DamnDJ]

Is it just going to vibe code apps on the fly?

 

[triumvirate]

I normally would say “competition is always a good thing”… but I guess these are not normal times. What a nightmare this thing sounds like.

 

[transpo1]

No vision required to guarantee this will be DOA, assuming it even releases.

Short sighted (pun intended). Yes, this could be a hardcore fail. Or it could be a massive success.

If there is one thing we definitely know, it’s that device will be a privacy nightmare.

For sure- but will its ability to assist us in our daily lives outweigh the nightmare? Many people have already given up their privacy in order to use free Google Chrome and Gmail.

Yeah, there is literally zero public interest in a new phone. The iPhone already has a ton of rivals and doesn't need another to pile on.

Never forget: "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." –Steve Jobs.

It's a concept that doesn't take into account what people really uses their phones for, Gaming, "doom scrolling" on Tiktok, facebook and instagram, this is DOA

Yes, but OpenAI and Johnny Ive already know that and you're not going to have an OpenAI mass-market phone without access to Instagram.

Yes, you DO lack vision.

Think of how a really rich person, like even Tim Cook, works. Do you really think he uses apps on a phone to get things done? No way. He tells his assistants what to do and they do it. He asks them to read his emails and tell him if there is anything important and so on. Then, he asks them toset up a meeting with XX and YY sometime next week. Same with anyone who is very productive, they do not waste their time dinking with their phone.



Phones are for "poor people" who can't afford to hire a dozen assistants to follow us around.



So what OpenAI is making is an assistant. You can ask your phone to tell you if anything is important in the pile of emails or maybe you need new shoes. Just tell it, I need shoes, find some and have them here Tuesday. But a smarter assistant would notice you need shoes and just get them for you. A truly smart phone would tell you as you are walking out the door "Hey dummy, your car keys are on the table in the living room." You would not have to ask.



Shopping list app? How primitive. The AI should just notice that someone ate the last banana.



Everyone who says "I don't want AI” thinks that AI is just a stupid chatbot. No, that was only the simplest thing they could make with the technology. The better AI just hangs out in the background and points out things you need to know or takes suggestions and goes off and does stuff for you. It knows what you would want and it knows when it needs to ask you for a decision. It is like those super smart guys that work for the billionaire; they keep out of the way and try not to be seen but are ready to help on two seconds’ notice.

Exactly. 💯

This could be a failure. Or, if it works well, it could be next-generation, serious competition to the iPhone.

 

[Charliebird]

Even there own AI thinks it's a bad idea.

 

[Zwhaler]

Tough sell for a lot of reasons. The privacy nightmare is actually probably a weaker argument against this phone for the average user... they're more concerned with leaving the walled garden (iMessage, iCloud, Airdrop etc). Also, whatever competitive software Openai develops for this device should technically be able to run on a modern smartphone anyway, negating the need to switch platforms.

 

[wilhoitm]

Yes, you DO lack vision.

Think of how a really rich person, like even Tim Cook, works. Do you really think he uses apps on a phone to get things done? No way. He tells his assistants what to do and they do it. He asks them to read his emails and tell him if there is anything important and so on. Then, he asks them toset up a meeting with XX and YY sometime next week. Same with anyone who is very productive, they do not waste their time dinking with their phone.



Phones are for "poor people" who can't afford to hire a dozen assistants to follow us around.



So what OpenAI is making is an assistant. You can ask your phone to tell you if anything is important in the pile of emails or maybe you need new shoes. Just tell it, I need shoes, find some and have them here Tuesday. But a smarter assistant would notice you need shoes and just get them for you. A truly smart phone would tell you as you are walking out the door "Hey dummy, your car keys are on the table in the living room." You would not have to ask.



Shopping list app? How primitive. The AI should just notice that someone ate the last banana.



Everyone who says "I don't want AI” thinks that AI is just a stupid chatbot. No, that was only the simplest thing they could make with the technology. The better AI just hangs out in the background and points out things you need to know or takes suggestions and goes off and does stuff for you. It knows what you would want and it knows when it needs to ask you for a decision. It is like those super smart guys that work for the billionaire; they keep out of the way and try not to be seen but are ready to help on two seconds’ notice.

But Apple and Google can just add what you describled to their existing phones. If you watched the Google I/O announcements their Android phone already has most of these features. Why do we need an new phone from OpenAI to do these things?

 

[From Win to Mac]

Maybe it'll look like a little Luce

 

[progx]

Another way for Sam to raise money on products that will fall (way) short of the mark.

 

[iansilv]

Nah. Just, no. Not wanted, not needed. Piss off with your intrusive, all-consuming unneeded BS Altman. People are realizing what you are.

 

[iansilv]

are people, especially the younger generations, clamoring for an AI phone?
In 2026 / 2027?

No. People are realizing that all AI represents is an economic aggregation without offering true value to people.

 

[garranhado]

Without Steve Jobs, Jony Ive are nothing.

 

[sflagel]

I am surprised that is has taken this long for someone trying to build an AI agent that sits on top of all the apps (or replaces all the apps). To me, it seems almost archaic that we have to use different apps for different tasks.

A watch would be better but I guess some people like a big screen, for games and photos and such.

 

[permanoob]

If there is one thing we definitely know, it’s that device will be a privacy nightmare.

Why? What could go wrong with a device constantly tracking your communication and everything about your “real time state”? It’s just so it can do better tasks for you. There’s no way they would use it to spy on you, sell your info for more profit, or use it against you in any way as soon as you step out of line. The Tech oligarch-govt partnership just wants whats best for us.

 

[Gimli]

Android is basically just another way to do the same thing as iOS. Think Windows vs Mac. Both will do the same things just with a different look or process. This is something completely different. This won't use apps, but process vision and language and be your artificial assistant doing everything for you without you even looking at the phone. At least that's what it sounds like. The screen will probably just show your virtual assistant that talks to you and you show it things or tell it what you want done. After that it'll probably just use the screen to display the information.

It is my understanding that with the DOW contract Open AI cannot reply local AI. So what this phone will be is nothing more than a thin client.

 

[ry-guy]

Anytime someone in tech says ”This is the coolest/greatest piece of technology the world has seen” before creating it, ends up showing the worst dumbest piece of technology the world has ever seen.

Humane AI anyone?

 

[Jack Burton]

AI integration has made my Google Pixel phone, once enjoyable, borderline unusable. I've disabled gemini after the latest failure - it could no longer find contacts to text while driving using voice commands.

"Text Joshua Smith." "Sorry, I can't find a contact named Joshua Smith."

I know I have one, that's my brother, who I was texting using voice commands earlier that day at home.

"TEXT JOSHUA SMITH." "Sorry, I couldn't find a contact named Joshua Smith. Want to text Jonathan Smith instead?"

"NO." It then lectured me about other features. I had to tell it to stop talking.

After thinking for a LOOONG moment, it said "Got it." Of course it had to speak one last time.

I'm close to trading it in right now for an iPhone 17 or 17pro, because who knows what the price will be when new phones come out this fall.

The idea of an AI phone does not interest me in the least.

 

[quantumlight]

So many things wrong with this. It's a privacy nightmare. Who wants to trust OpenAI with all of their data and indeed all of their life?

But agents will not replace apps. In some cases agents will use apps. But agents are primarily useful for certain work cases. Most people's lives are not that complicated. So far all I see about agents for personal use is stuff like making a restaurant reservation or buying something. That's not so groundbreaking. And it's not exactly hard to do it on your own. Then there is the trust factor. Right now I wouldn't trust any agent to handle any financial transaction for me.

Most people use their smartphones for personal entertainment and enjoyment. You don't need or want an agent to replace you doing those things. You want to play the video game, not the agent. You want to take the photos, videos, browse photos, videos, etc. Not the agent. You want to scroll through social media and communicate, not the agent. You want to text others in conversation, not the agent. You want to watch the Netflix show, not the agent. There are many other examples.

But the bottom line is that this is more fluff talk from Sam, just like the earlier idea about replacing the phone with a screenless device. He had to retreat on that and this too will not work.

 

[now i see it]

and all the data it collects gets sent to OpenAI - who then sells it to whoever they want.
Nightmare.
Who in their right mind would want to even get near this device?