Apple entering the AI market will be a game changer!
If there’s one thing you can count on about Apple, it’s that they will never be 1st to any new trends, and that’s on purpose. Apple likes to analyze the market, carefully develop their products, and when they launch they target the higher end of the market with a singular goal of domination.
During a conference call with analysts following Apple’s 1st quarter earnings report, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said when asked about Apple’s plans for entering the AI market “Let me just say that I think there’s a huge opportunity for Apple with Gen AI and AI, without getting into more details and getting out in front of myself.”
That little tease was enough to get Apple fanboys all fired up for what could be to come.
So let’s talk about the top 3 ways Apple could incorporate AI their products
1) Siri
The most obvious way Apple could incorporate AI into an existing product would be to turn Siri into a full-blown AI chatbot. Currently Siri is like a magician at a children’s birthday party. She can do a couple of neat tricks to get a smile out of you, and yes she can even perform some tasks like turn on music or a smart device. I see a lot of potential for adding AI to Siri, and I imagine Apple is already deep into bringing this new functionality to market.
According to a report by Next Move Strategy Consulting “The Voice Assistant Market was valued at USD 2.73 billion in 2021 and is predicted to reach USD 36.35 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 33.6% from 2022-2030.”
2) iTunes
I used to love iTunes, but then Apple went and fiddled with a good thing, and in my opinion tailored it predominantly for existing Mac and iPhone users leaving Windows and Android users out in the cold. Again, just my opinion, but I’m not alone feeling this way.
If Apple were to incorporate AI into iTunes to be able to better suggest music to all users, not just Mac and iPhone users, then I think they could surpass Spotify and Pandora in their ability to suggest new music based on your listening preferences.
According to a report by Business of Apps “Apple Music made approximately $8.3 billion revenue in 2022” and had “88 million people subscribe to Apple Music as of June 2022” which is “more subscribers than Spotify in the United States, but Spotify has more in Europe and South America.”
3) Vision Pro
While the Vision Pro is Apple’s latest product they’ve just brought to market, its potential could be game changing for the entire company. No singular product since the iPhone could bring together all of the products in Apple’s ecosystem within one device.
There are already over 600 apps for the Vision Pro just days after its release, and that number is going to continue to grow as more consumers purchase the product and rave about it in reviews.
Now imagine if Apple incorporated a personalized AI avatar exclusive to the Vision Pro. Talk about mass adoption!
According to a report by Markets and Markets the market for VR/AR is expected to “reach $71.2 billion by 2028 from $25.1 billion in 2023” with a “CAGR of 23.2% during the 2023-2028 period.”
Bonus:
An unknown new product. AI is pushing the limits on what we think is even possible to achieve each day. It’s tough to predict the future, but Apple has proven they have a keen sense for what is to come even if that means they create a new product category that never existed before.
Apple hasn’t innovated as much in the video editing and content creator segment of the industry as rivals Adobe has, but I think there’s a lot of room for Apple to incorporate AI into some of their video editing products such as Final Cut Pro. Apple could introduce enhanced audio to clean up audio and remove background noise automatically, like Adobe does with their Adobe Enhanced Audio which they’ve incorporated into their Premiere Pro and Adobe Podcast.
Acquisitions:
Apple is notoriously selective in their acquisitions. While many companies do acquisitions to hire talent, called acquihires, Apple prefers to acquire technology. Sure, they did acquire Beats Electronics for $3 billion in 2014, but that was as much of a technology acquisition as it was an acquihire to hire Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
There’s one new product in the marketplace that made a big splash toward the end of 2023 for about a week, then everyone forgot about it. The company is called Humane AI, and they came out with their AI Pin products that retails for $699. This high price point is in line with Apple’s upmarket strategy, and the form-factors of the AI is a dead ringer for Apple products – probably because the AI Pin’s designers are former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno.
Humane’s AI Pin holds a lot of promise that I think Apple could unlock and integrate with existing Apple products like Siri, iTunes, and their Vision Pro.
In closing, I have no doubt that Apple entering the AI market will be a gamechanger for not only the industry, but also for the Apple growth trajectory going forward.
