alt Hacker NewsApple looks better and better as every day passes. Other players going deeply into debt to build out massive infrastructure, VCs pumping up the model ecosystem that is now a total commodity.
Apple’s just been sitting there with solid cashflow waiting for all this to implode and then have on-device models with their own chips.
Apple will own the end device while the rest of the world is fighting over a pure commodity. It will burn hard and Apple will laugh all the way to the bank.
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Curious, why would Apple want to wait for "all this" to implode? They've had on-device silicon for AI for eons now (in AI-years), so they could have been executing their strategy, whatever it is, all this time, no?
My outsider take is that Apple leadership never really believed in the capability of GenAI, and hence kept pursuing their pre-LLM strategy. An interesting signal about how that's working out now is that their AI org leadership was overhauled recently.
Others are betting on AGI/almost AGI like system. It's a gamble because no one actually knows whether or when it will be possible to create it. But if their bets pay off, they could outcompete Apple. Basically, other companies are going all in on the next card, while Apple is holding back and waiting to see which cards are dealt.
Cell phones are commodities, so how does Apple maintain that cash flow? It's almost like there is more to it than that...
I just switched to iPhone and I have to say the UI is so bad. It will be my last.
No Apple was not sitting there and waiting as if its some grand plan. They tried their VR device which they don't even talk about now. They were late to AI and yes if the bubble bursts they will be at a better position but it's not some grand master strategy. Even inside apple there's been a lot of talk about how badly the company handled AI.
As for laughing all the way to the bank, I am sure memory manufacturers and Nvidia was definitely join them regardless of what happens.
Also comparing Apple (literally one of the largest companies in the world) to a company burning VC money makes no sense.
Isn’t Apple potentially under a lot of pressure due to the DRAM prices as well as having to compete with AI for fab capacity? Before all the price hikes their products were already priced at the top of the market so I would assume that memory getting more expensive will impact their sales or margin quite a bit as they can’t subsidize hardware like AI companies do (they can of course eat into their own margins a bit which I think they already do). So not sure if what happens right now is great for them, if the memory market collapses it will of course be good.