Is Apple late to the AI party with Apple Intelligence? According to Tim Cook, it is not about who is first with AI, but who brings it to the general public in the best way.
In June at its annual WWDC conference, Apple announced Apple Intelligence: a suite of intelligent AI features for its phones and computers. With Apple Intelligence, you can have emails written, notifications summarized and other time-consuming tasks outsourced to AI. Apple thus finally jumped on the AI hypetrain.
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Tim Cook: “Apple doesn’t have to be the first with AI, but the best”
The iPhone maker’s eternal critics will argue that Apple was grossly late in doing so. The AI train had been thundering along at breakneck speed for a year and a half at the time Apple Intelligence was announced. Apple Intelligence also missed the launch of the iPhone 16 and iOS 18. The sentiment that Apple is limping behind in the AI race is also said to be prevalent among its own staff, according to Bloomberg’s regular Apple analyst Mark Gurman.
Tim Cook sees it completely differently. In an extensive interview with the Wall Street Journal, he explains his AI plans. Apple’s focus is not on being the first, but the best.
The last will be the best
“We certainly weren’t the first to do intelligence,” Cook admits. “But we’re doing it in the way we believe is best for the customer.” In the interview, Cook will also talk at length about how Apple Intelligence has changed his life and how it will also change the user experience of all Apple products.
You can agree with Cook or not, there is certainly something to be said for his words. The AI features Apple Intelligence is bringing to the iPhone and Mac are certainly nothing new compared to what Google and Microsoft have been doing for a while. But Apple does manage to integrate it all neatly in a way that the competition has yet to do for now. The company knows better than anyone how to play off its ecosystem. For example, you can ask questions of your iPhone that stretch across multiple applications at once.
Unfortunately, the whole Apple Intelligence story is not so relevant yet for those living in the EU. In protest against the DMA and the obligations that come with the stature of gatekeeper, Apple refuses for now to bring its AI suite to European users. For macOS, the door is reportedly still ajar, but for iOS it remains firmly shut for now.
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Tim Cook: “Apple doesn’t have to be the first with AI, but the best”
Patience with Vision Pro
Tim Cook talks about that other big gamble Apple made this year: the Vision Pro. The AR headset was announced with much fanfare – remember Cook’s famous One More Thing moment at WWDC 2023? – but for now Apple isn’t getting the product off the ground. Sales are low because of the high $3,500 price tag, and developers are abandoning the headset.
That the Vision Pro would not be an instant blockbuster for Apple also seems to be within Cook’s expectations. “It’s not a mass-market product,” Cook said. “Right now it’s an early-adopter product. People who want tomorrow’s technology today, that’s what it’s for. Fortunately, there are plenty of people who are in that camp.”
Any second generation should be hit though. Apple, according to sources, is considering a cheaper version with a lighter chip and no EyeSight feature. ‘Cheap’ still means as much as two thousand dollars in Apple’s lexicon.