> AI was supposed to lead to a supercycle of smartphone growth, not just among iPhone users but also Android.
This was wishful thinking, not something sober observers expected. Everyone selling AI tools wants it to be true, and phone manufacturers would love to go back to the years where consumers upgraded annually but that was unlikely with much of the world still recovering from the pandemic and so many investor-driven layoffs. People aren’t buying new phones ahead of schedule unless there’s something compelling, and that just hasn’t shipped yet - some nice to haves if it works as well as advertised, but nothing which will make many people run to the store to buy a new phone so they can use it today.
Technical advances are driven by tech A solving need B. Some big bosses feel a need to fire people, so AI has them covered, but I think most phone users are unclear about what problem AI on the phone solves for them.
> AI was supposed to lead to a supercycle of smartphone growth, not just among iPhone users but also Android.
This was wishful thinking, not something sober observers expected. Everyone selling AI tools wants it to be true, and phone manufacturers would love to go back to the years where consumers upgraded annually but that was unlikely with much of the world still recovering from the pandemic and so many investor-driven layoffs. People aren’t buying new phones ahead of schedule unless there’s something compelling, and that just hasn’t shipped yet - some nice to haves if it works as well as advertised, but nothing which will make many people run to the store to buy a new phone so they can use it today.
Technical advances are driven by tech A solving need B. Some big bosses feel a need to fire people, so AI has them covered, but I think most phone users are unclear about what problem AI on the phone solves for them.
I can’t speak to Android, but I’m not surprised by the lack of iPhone sales at all—-they haven’t shipped any AI features yet!
WWDC has gone from a launch announcement to an upcoming roadmap, so these are basically iPhone 17 features for most folks.
They shipped earlier this month, but were underwhelming:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/apple-releases-ios-1...