Report: Apple's AI Strategy Could Finally Pay Off in 2026

[WarmWinterHat]

Tim Cook posting AI slop to promote Apple TV is pretty embarrassing.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2003873311504130173

Tim Cook Posts AI Slop in Christmas Message on Twitter/X, Ostensibly to Promote ‘Pluribus’

Link to: https://x.com/tim_cook/status/2003873311504130173

daringfireball.net

It's pretty generic post, but Tim Cook is pretty generic. How does one know that it's AI?

 

[19callum93]

So basically Apple has sat back, and let other companies do the hard work… and at a later date utilising that hard work to thier advantage. Perfect plan! 😂

 

[code-m]

Did you forget about NFTs? Also the fact that most crypto is worthless and there is still no usecase for it outside fo drug dealing? I'd say most skeptics about crypto have been right so far, the problem is that the market can stay irrational for a very very long time.

Most mom and pop know what BTC is compared to NFT hence BTC has this mysterious allure that everyone and their dog has an option on. NFT, not so much.

 

[Trusteft]

I hope it is a bubble and it bursts soon.

 

[Downundermac]

This was my first thought at the initial Apple AI address but by now I assume it’s likely PR spin in overdrive to cover up sloppy product development and if Apple benefits from an AI slump it is just luck. Am assuming it’ll only work fully on the latest hardware, which is why I haven’t bothered buying Apple gear since their AI announcement other than a MBA M3 necessary purchase.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

It's pretty generic post, but Tim Cook is pretty generic. How does one know that it's AI?

Especially when the imagery is patterned after an ATV show.

 

[Siliconguy]

Apple's only mistake with AI was adding Apple Intelligence before it was ready.

Apple will do what they've always done, they weren't the first desktop, but make the best ones, they weren't the first mp3 players but made the iPod, not the first smart phones but reinvented the world with iPhones, etc.

Apple's brand isn't 'AI Slop' - they don't do slop, they'll ship it when it's ready and cohesively fits within their ecosystem.

That's an optimistic take. You clearly did not notice they promised the AI moon with Sequoia and conspicuously failed to deliver anything of value. "Next release for sure!" for a year? Bullwinkle had more luck pulling a rabbit from his hat.

The only "artificial intelligence strategy" I've seen is flopping and flailing with a bit of outsourcing now, or at least rumors of outsourcing it. At this point a viable "artificial intelligence strategy" is to admit failure and make the outsourced AI client an optional download. Trade all the data on your machine for the AI greatness of "to-be-determined" or keep your data private and out of the corporate training set and keep doing what you know works.

 

[ZeroInspo]

Most mom and pop know what BTC is compared to NFT hence BTC has this mysterious allure that everyone and their dog has an option on. NFT, not so much.

ok but that’s not my argument. My argument is that crypto skeptics are not skeptics about the ability of the “asset” to make money, they are skeptics of the intrinsic value of the asset and whether it actually has any real practical use. So far it seems the skeptics are right, and being a skeptic doesn’t mean that you can’t take advantage of the irrationality of it to make money yourself.

 

[Agent007]

Apple will do what they've always done, they weren't the first desktop, but make the best ones, they weren't the first mp3 players but made the iPod, not the first smart phones but reinvented the world with iPhones, etc.

Apple's brand isn't 'AI Slop' - they don't do slop, they'll ship it when it's ready and cohesively fits within their ecosystem.

Apple isn't like that anymore, though. "Think different" now means finding a creative way to squeeze another half cent out of each unit.

 

[IIGS User]

Is AI a bubble that’s going to burst? Sure it is. Just like every other bubble run up by finance bro’s in the past going back to Dutch Tulip Bulbs.

Anyone remember “dark fiber”. And no, it’s not the nighttime version of Metamucil. And Metamucil has nothing to do with Facebook 🤦.

A bunch of greedy people got in early. Making a quick buck before all the people who got into it after it was common knowledge lose their shirts leaving pennies on the dollar wreckage to be cleaned up (and make a lot of long term investors rich).

AI isn’t going anywhere. Just like the internet is here to stay. It’s too transformative. Too much potential for day to day impact. AI is here to stay one way or another.

Just like the internet bubble, it won’t matter to most people. Whatever they were using will keep working and they won’t notice. Some big company will buy Nvidia or GPT for chump change, give it a new name, and go from there.

As far as Apple. Sorry, SUCKING IS NOT A STRATEGY. Siri is absolutely without a doubt terrible beyond belief. That’s like calling the Pontiac Aztec or the Motorola ROKR a “strategy”. No. It’s just sucks. Period. That’s the end of it. It sucks.

None of these things originally set out to suck. Siri didn’t set out to suck. Pontiac didn’t set out to be a punchline in Breaking Bad. Motorola is gonna moto. Anyway. Apple SOLD the 16 as being “ready for Apple Intelligence”. It wasn’t a strategic failure. It was just a failure and it did so in grand fashion.

When you’re paying Snoop Dog to tell me my phone is “Apple Intelligence” ready, your intention wasn’t to sell me “Eat up Martha”

Which is what we got. Apple just dropped the ball. If it works out, they just got lucky with the timing. There was no grand stra-tegorie to it.

 

[BGrifter]

Standing still while your competition is enthusiastically leaping off a cliff is a reasonable strategy.

We’re seeing the beginnings of a massive consumer backlash against generative AI. Apple has less of that stink to wash off than Google or Samsung.

Maybe they got here through bumbling and incompetence rather than strategy. But Apple is unlikely to bear the brunt of the anger when the bubble pops.

 

[yabeweb]

Instead of telling you what it found on the web it will automatically open the web page....it will be "Magic"

 

[ZeroInspo]

Is AI a bubble that’s going to burst? Sure it is. Just like every other bubble run up by finance bro’s in the past going back to Dutch Tulip Bulbs.

Anyone remember “dark fiber”. And no, it’s not the nighttime version of Metamucil. And Metamucil has nothing to do with Facebook 🤦.

A bunch of greedy people got in early. Making a quick buck before all the people who got into it after it was common knowledge lose their shirts leaving pennies on the dollar wreckage to be cleaned up (and make a lot of long term investors rich).

AI isn’t going anywhere. Just like the internet is here to stay. It’s too transformative. Too much potential for day to day impact. AI is here to stay one way or another.

Just like the internet bubble, it won’t matter to most people. Whatever they were using will keep working and they won’t notice. Some big company will buy Nvidia or GPT for chump change, give it a new name, and go from there.

As far as Apple. Sorry, SUCKING IS NOT A STRATEGY. Siri is absolutely without a doubt terrible beyond belief. That’s like calling the Pontiac Aztec or the Motorola ROKR a “strategy”. No. It’s just sucks. Period. That’s the end of it. It sucks.

None of these things originally set out to suck. Siri didn’t set out to suck. Pontiac didn’t set out to be a punchline in Breaking Bad. Motorola is gonna moto. Anyway. Apple SOLD the 16 as being “ready for Apple Intelligence”. It wasn’t a strategic failure. It was just a failure and it did so in grand fashion.

When you’re paying Snoop Dog to tell me my phone is “Apple Intelligence” ready, your intention wasn’t to sell me “Eat up Martha”

Which is what we got. Apple just dropped the ball. If it works out, they just got lucky with the timing. There was no grand stra-tegorie to it.

I think it’s more productive to look at it from the point of view of internal politics. As I understand it, many execs and Frederighi especially, were skeptical about the prospects of AI. I believe their approach was going to be to wait it out and see.

But then Wall Street balked and they found themselves forced at the last minute to come up with an implementation of AI in their products.

Of course this was rushed so they failed to deliver, and few months later AI optimism was already declining so they probably decided that it’s best to take a tempered approach, essentially what they had at first decided to do.

So if anything they were probably right at the start but because investors are mindless locusts they were forced to do this half assed implementation and an early announcement of what was vapor ware as they did not really have this in their roadmap.

 

[Parowdy]

Gemini helped us through a blizzard yesterday. We ended up driving through Iowa and Minnesota through a blizzard. Google maps was indespensible in its real-time communications with Iowa Department of transportation to clue us in on what roads were open, closed, dangerous, etc. Apple Maps? Completely left in the dust, giving us false and outdated information. Just terrible.

Where did Gemini play part in that? Genuine question, as I thought Google Maps and Gemini don’t overlap. I don’t use either.

 

[Parowdy]

Instead of telling you what it found on the web it will automatically open the web page....it will be "Magic"

It just works.

(It being something, not that you want it need. But it works)

 

[coolfactor]

Apple's AI strategy is actually having a mature business that isn't entirely dependent on LLMs. So when the ass falls out of the LLM market they will be market leaders everywhere else.

Also who cares about Siri? Mine has been turned off for nearly 2 years. I don't miss it. Where the computer has to interpret what I'm asking is where problems always turn up. It's bad enough when working with humans.

How can you fairly judge Siri if you haven't been using it? Siri has been fantastic at what she was designed to do. An LLM-powered Siri she is not... yet. That's coming and it's going to rock the world.

 

[nt5672]

And yet as the article says, hasn’t hurt their bottom line a bit.

Its like that old story about the bear attack, you only have to run faster than 1 other person in your group to win.

Does not mean that you are a fast runner, a good runner, an experienced runner, etc. It just means that you did just enough not to be attacked.

Anyway that would be ". . . hasn’t hurt their bottom line yet." Apple is currently at the mercy of the other runners. And they are not standing still.

 

[coolfactor]

Or it could continue to flounder and flop?

So sheer cluelessness is called „strategy“ nowadays? Interesting…

Nah boss we're not lazing around or paralyzed by indecision, this is the plan!

I dunno, I am not sure if 'not the first but the best' can really count here in the AI race. Google and other players are just so far ahead it's unbelievable.

But I hope to be proved otherwise

Apple was smart to not rush into embracing the first few generations of LLMs. We've all seen the embarrassments, the hallucinations, the missteps and the ... dangerous situations... created by the first few releases. It would be far too risky for Apple to have unleashed those through Siri.

And the operating costs associated have been astronomical whereas Siri is expected to be 100% free.

Patience will pay off for us Siri users.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Cool me skeptical...Not only has Apple been flailing in the LLM space, they have been flailing with software across the board. iOS 26 sucks, the Photo app sucks, Tahoe sucks, they completely screwed up the workout portion of the watch, etc.

I'll believe it when I see it. Until then:

View attachment 2591814

Exactly. And what's ironic is that while people have tons of pitchforks and torches ready to go for Alan Dye, CFed seems to get a constant pass.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Apple's AI strategy is actually having a mature business that isn't entirely dependent on LLMs. So when the ass falls out of the LLM market they will be market leaders everywhere else.

Also who cares about Siri? Mine has been turned off for nearly 2 years. I don't miss it. Where the computer has to interpret what I'm asking is where problems always turn up. It's bad enough when working with humans.

That's the key though. That's why (people who want it) want an LLM powered Siri. Siri can actually do a few things, but the command syntax is so strict and inconsistent. The LLM part would help it interpret far better.

But I do think they need to scrap Siri entirely because its reputation has been absolutely ruined over the past decade of worse than neglect. If they simply ignored it that would be one thing, but all these years they keep lying about how great it is. And it just keeps going unto now.

 

[bluecoast]

Apple mostly failed in its AI implementation.

Yes, this boom is unsustainable and Apple will likely be able to pick up talent and IP with its huge cash pile and catch up.

But that’s luck not strategy.

 

[klasma]

And yet as the article says, hasn’t hurt their bottom line a bit.

I don’t care about their bottom line, I care about their product quality.

 

[FatLouie]

The original article is paywalled, so I can only comment on the MR interpretation.

Apple's inept stumbling and fumbling of AI and Siri have probably, and inadvertently, worked to Apple's advantage. When that happened, Cook and others should have been shown the door. Had that been the case, Apple would have immediately taken on a new image.

Now, as far as LLMs go, I really do not see a need for Apple to spend the money to reinvent the same wheel. At some point in the future, all AI will present the same information, for the most part...the only difference will be how it is presented to the user.

I hope that a 'more conversant Siri' is not going to treat me like its best homie, in the same way that the AI from Mint cellular does. I don't want a conversation; I want clear, correct, and precise answers presented in as few words as possible. I don't need AI to act like it is my friend.

 

[FatLouie]

Apple mostly failed in its AI implementation.

Yes, this boom is unsustainable and Apple will likely be able to pick up talent and IP with its huge cash pile and catch up.

But that’s luck not strategy.

Exactly. This was not a strategy; it was, at best, stumbling onto a better path due to poor management decisions.

 

[martint235]

Is AI a bubble that’s going to burst? Sure it is. Just like every other bubble run up by finance bro’s in the past going back to Dutch Tulip Bulbs.

Anyone remember “dark fiber”. And no, it’s not the nighttime version of Metamucil. And Metamucil has nothing to do with Facebook 🤦.

A bunch of greedy people got in early. Making a quick buck before all the people who got into it after it was common knowledge lose their shirts leaving pennies on the dollar wreckage to be cleaned up (and make a lot of long term investors rich).

AI isn’t going anywhere. Just like the internet is here to stay. It’s too transformative. Too much potential for day to day impact. AI is here to stay one way or another.

Just like the internet bubble, it won’t matter to most people. Whatever they were using will keep working and they won’t notice. Some big company will buy Nvidia or GPT for chump change, give it a new name, and go from there.

As far as Apple. Sorry, SUCKING IS NOT A STRATEGY. Siri is absolutely without a doubt terrible beyond belief. That’s like calling the Pontiac Aztec or the Motorola ROKR a “strategy”. No. It’s just sucks. Period. That’s the end of it. It sucks.

None of these things originally set out to suck. Siri didn’t set out to suck. Pontiac didn’t set out to be a punchline in Breaking Bad. Motorola is gonna moto. Anyway. Apple SOLD the 16 as being “ready for Apple Intelligence”. It wasn’t a strategic failure. It was just a failure and it did so in grand fashion.

When you’re paying Snoop Dog to tell me my phone is “Apple Intelligence” ready, your intention wasn’t to sell me “Eat up Martha”

Which is what we got. Apple just dropped the ball. If it works out, they just got lucky with the timing. There was no grand stra-tegorie to it.

I think the bubble that will burst is the weird circular investment that is going on for example NVidia invest in OpenAI who buy compute power from Oracle who buy chips from NVidia. That is a recipe for disaster with NVidia possibly being the first to suffer.
Investment in AI abilities will continue with investment in some of the startups dropping off until the big players actually find a way to get a return on the investment. Once that happens you’ll see the next gen of AI companies coming up.