Asymco Bulletin 029 - Sep 6, 2026
by Horace Dediu
The Asymmetric Weekly
Look Ahead
Friday 11 September, Time TBD. We are holding an in-real-life Office Hours, either in Boston or the Bay Area, open to Asymco One subscribers. We will be broadcasting the event live. If you would be interested in attending, write to events@asymco.com.
Research
Deploying Enterprise AI on Apple Hardware is Suddenly a no-Brainer
Apple’s AI angle in the enterprise There was a time when Apple’s point to the Enterprise buyer was that Apple products were ultimately more cost effective and productive. The total cost of ownership was lower as the products were cheaper to maintain and lasted longer and users were more productive as the user experience frictions were lower than Windows. The problem was that Apple devices were at odds with IT policies and standards. Everything from device management, software licensing, identity and authentication management, migration, training, security were built excluding the Apple platforms. The Microsoft world was interlocking and impenetrable even →
Nota Bene
IDC lowers smartphone market volume estimates again → IDC now expects global smartphone shipments to fall 16.7% in 2026, revised down from 13.9%, which would be the steepest annual contraction on record. Second half shipments are set to drop more than 27% while ASP rises 27% to $581, because the memory tsunami has arrived and consumers are paying the AI bill. The era of the cheap smartphone has ended. IDC also credits Apple’s foldable with altering the market’s trajectory, which mistakes how markets are actually created. →
The first surgical Apple Vision Pro application approved by the FDA → Stryker’s SportSuite Vision received De Novo authorization on July 17, making it the first application cleared for intraoperative use with Apple Vision Pro, and the first live procedure was a hip arthroscopy at Duke Health. Separately, Nabla is running AI clinical dictation on device on Apple computers. Regulatory clearance is the hard part, and it has now been cleared. Spatial computing has moved from demonstration to the operating room. →
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