The iPhone is ‘not getting disrupted’ by AI: Perplexity CEO

AI makes the strong stronger. That is the opposite of disruption.

The iPhone appears stronger than ever despite Apple’s AI struggles, and that’s not a coincidence, says Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas.

Speaking on the latest episode of the This Week in AI podcast, Srinivas indicated that the iPhone only stands to benefit from continual AI improvement.

"Here’s my opinion. I haven’t said this before. The phone, the iPhone is actually not getting disrupted by AI at all. In fact, the more AI works better, the iPhone essentially becomes your digital passport."

Perplexity’s CEO touts Apple’s ecosystem and silicon advantages as some of the reasons why the iPhone is positioned for continued success. It’s also, in his view, why Apple can afford to move slow with its long-delayed Siri overhaul.

"My sense is that even though a lot of people have opinions on how bad Siri is or good Siri is, [Apple has] the ability to take time and do things they want to do, because they have advantages as a brand that people truly trust. The ecosystem lock-in is underrated. Auxiliary hardware devices, the chip advantage, all of this is really underrated right now.
Srinivas also mentions how the iPhone is central to people’s lives for many reasons that have nothing to do with AI."

He says, “It has your wallet, it has all your cards, it has your passes, it has your health records, you connect with other human beings through it, you do FaceTimes, you do calls, you have photos of precious moments in your life.” All of these are extremely personal, and as a result, users won’t easily switch away from iPhone.

Source: 9to5Mac

NB: Knowing the theory of disruption provides a three year lead in decision making. The observation...

...is that the iPhone is "entrenched" or protected by a moat or ecosystem or some other euphemism of "lock-in". But these are not the reasons why iPhone is sustained by a new technology. It's simply that Apple is incentivized to embrace it. The company has all the resources necessary to participate and can observe that the new technology is beneficial to its customers.

Therefore it will fold the new ideas into its business model. Disruption means it find the new thing either less profitable, not relevant or addressing customers that it does not have or want.

None of these conditions apply to AI. AI leads to more profit for Apple, is very relevant and aimed squarely at its best customers.The question becomes not why would Apple not embrace AI but why wouldn't it.