Apple’s lousy AI didn’t stop it beating Samsung’s smartphone sales for the first time since 2011

Apple is set to displace Samsung as the world’s top smartphone manufacturer, measured by shipment volume, according to analyst firm Counterpoint. Samsung has topped the charts since 2011, but the firm says the recently-released iPhone 17 is selling better, faster, than its predecessor. Counterpoint senior analyst Yang Wang …

[spacecadet66]

I'm pretty sure of all the Big Tech companies, Apple is going to have the best results out of the AI bubble--because they're largely just dabbling a bit, not going balls-and-tiny-brain out for it like some tech executives I could name.

[IGotOut]

You sure on that

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-will-spend-more-than-500-billion-usd-in-the-us-over-the-next-four-years/

[Anonymous Coward]

re : Apple US Spending

Those plans were just to keep the dear leader happy between his dozes in the Oval Office.

IMHO, a lot, if not most will never happen and even those spends may not be 100% AI related.

Personally, the sooner this AI Bubble goes pop the better but I'm just one old git who does not see any real use for it in my life.

[Richard 12]

Re: re : Apple US Spending

Nearly all of that is supposedly building factories, and high-tech manufacturing capacity can certainly be used or sold on.

Apple also reported about $112 billion net profit in year ending Sept 2025, so even if they did spend that much it's basically zeroing out the profit for a few years. They've already got $40 billion cash on hand, they can afford it.

Of course, in reality less than 10% of that spend will ever happen. They'll do some planning, then quietly cancel the lot.

[DS999]

Apple made similar announcements in 2017 and 2021

IIRC Apple said they would spend $350 billion over the next four years in 2017 when Trump's first term started, and that they would spend $430 billion in 2021 when Biden's first term started. What they actually spent, and how it was counted, who knows but that $500 billion is basically just continuing along the same path. Cook knows Apple won't be held to that number any more than China is going to be held to their supposed commitments for soybean purchases Trump announced. Trump wants the announcement, he doesn't care about follow through.

Somehow some people have conflated to that "Apple is spending $500 billion bringing their manufacturing to the US" or "spending $500 billion on AI" but neither are true. They aren't moving production of any iPhones or Macs to the US, and they certainly aren't spending anything like that much on AI.

Apple's AI spending is mere "dabbling" when compared what the ones hyping and benefiting from the AI bubble. They are building AI datacenters but nothing on the ridiculous scale that OpenAI, Meta etc. are. The mistake they made was committing to a particular date for having improved AI features in iOS, because when they had to announce they were pushing that back it put the idea "Apple is behind in AI" on Wall Street.

They should have said something like "we're taking a careful approach rather than throwing something over the wall and letting customers test it for us", since that's in reality what Apple always does. They are rarely first with a product or feature, they take their time and try to perfect (or at least improve) it instead of racing to claim "f1rst!" They would happily have a less capable AI if in exchange for that tradeoff that one that was less prone to hallucination and lying. Don't commit to a date, say "it'll ship when its ready and while we hope we'll have it by x that's a goal not a promise".

[Mostly Irrelevant]

Ironically the way Apple's Mac hardware is surprisingly good at running LLM models locally. The high-speed unified memory and passable iGPU's outclass similar commodity Windows machines by a lot.

[Filippo]

Okay, Apple is overtaking Samsung, but is that a meaningful metric?

Surely that's mostly because they are basically the only ones that make something that's not Android, while at the same time the barriers to entry in the Android market are comparatively low? The Android market is very fragmented. If you want iOS, there's only Apple; if you want Android, there's vicious competition. If anything, it's surprising that Samsung has been number 1 for any amount of time.

[DS999]

Apple has been slowly increasing its overall smartphone market share for years. But yes that's only part of this, the rest is probably that other Android OEMs have been eating away at Samsung's share, especially in the lower/middle ranges where Chinese phones are gaining.

[sarusa]

Lousy AI is a Feature

I know at least two friends who switched from Samsung to Apple recently because of the privacy issues with Google being aggressively evil and because they can see where the AI shit train is going with Android and Samsung, full speed ahead.

Of course Apple's sliding down the slippery shitslide (to change metaphors) but nowhere near as fast and we're hoping that by the time the AI bubble pops not toooo much damage will have been done.

Evil is relative of course, Apple's no saint, but we feel more like the customer than the cow with Apple, and what else are we going to do at this point. For now. We basically have three choices and the Chinese stuff is even worse. For the same reasons I am seriously considering switching from Win11 to Steam Desktop dist whenever they release that because holy crap Microsoft is the king of shit now. Like that giant poo monster in Conker's Bad Fur Day flinging his AI at you.

And sorry for all the fecal analogies, but I can't think of anything more appropriate at this point than shit gushing downhill onto our heads. This is all staggeringly anti-consumer. Welcome to 2025!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I'm STILL not going to pay any iDiot tax.

[HellDiverUK]

Hur hur, 1995 is calling, it wants it's joke back.

[Charlie Clark]

Affordable?

Apple also got lucky when the USA and China declared a truce in their trade war, as that saw tariffs reduced and meant iPhones remained affordable in the US.

I know there are cheaper models, but even these are expensive compared with the Android competition. Buying an I-Phone is never a question of affordability.

I think a few of the other speculations in the article are questionale. IIRC Apple was due for a "supercycle" replacement after a few releases that were just more expensive phones with even better cameras. I don't AI features in the decisions of many consumers, otherwise they'd been using Google or Chinese devices.

The Android market, including Samsung, moved to longer replacement cycles a few years ago and introduced more tiers to suit different consumer preferences: my A35 is every bit as good as SWMBO's S25, but lacks wirelss charging and a couple of other features I'm not prepared three times the price for. The idea is to capture "the value", something at which Apple has historically been pretty good, but where it's now missing out at the top end in Asia because it doesn't have a foldable line. And Asia is where most of the innovation has been happening for the last few years.

[sal II]

Major iPhone design revamp in 2027

"The firm also thinks Apple will deliver “a major iPhone design revamp” in 2027 to mark the 20th anniversary of the iPhone."

Not with Tim Apple as CEO, and if latest rumors that his exit won't be until late 2026, this won't allow sufficient time for any major change.

Unless of course they mean a switch to revolutionary aluminum unibody with rounded edges. /s

[DS999]

Re: Major iPhone design revamp in 2027

The major revamp is that they think they've reportedly figured out how to put the front camera under the display without compromising on its image quality (which is something everyone who has done it so far has encountered) and they'd already figured out how to put Face ID under the display (supposedly that's coming next fall) so it'll be all screen.

Whether you think that's "major" or not is up to the eye of the beholder, but it is probably about on par in departure from previous iPhones as the iPhone X which was the first iPhone that was edge to edge screen in all dimensions (other than the notch) It also replaces mechanical buttons with pressure activated haptic "buttons", though that's not really something that will be as visually notable or make any difference in actual use.

[JimmyPage]

An "AI" less iPhone ?

I really could be tempted/

[Anonymous Coward]

Alternative headline:

"Samsung Users happier with phones and not feeling a constant need to upgrade"

[JimmyPage]

Re: Alternative headline:

Well I find my A7 (which I took from a previous job) does everything I need.

[Anthony 14]

Maybe very minor, but interesting that WhatsApp is now native on WatchOS.

[PhilipN]

"AI ... will likely provide a further driver of upgrades"

No, it won't

[BMS]

As an Android user that hates the AI integrations Samsung and Google are forcing us, they are making it more attractive to just give up and get an iPhone. The last iPhone I had was an iPhone 3GS back in like 2012 and the main reason I switched was because Android offered cheaper phones that did much of the same tasks while also being far more open to side-loaded apps allowing for more functionality and customization.

But flagship Android phones that are competitive to iPhones are now basically the same price if not more expensive. And Google has been on a crusade to slowly kill side-loading on Android to replicate Apple's walled garden of an App Store. If the next Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel is as restrictive as Apple, why would I stay with them? I might as well just get my first iPhone in over a decade since Apple seems to be relying less on AI gimmicks and has a better ecosystem with their smart watches, AirPods, and other accessories.

[Anonymous Coward]

AI wasn't why I upgraded

I'm one of the people who ordered a new iPhone, but TBH, AI *itself* was not part of the decision process.

I was more curious about its use in live translation, and I refresh every 2 years anyway (partly to the benefit of my son who is the enthusiastic recipient of the older one, and he in turn has apparently someone quite OK with his old one - I'm feeding a chain here :) ). I do this refresh mainly to stay current, but I don't do it every year - the one year gap is enough to make improvements actually noticeable as Cook is an administrator keeping the lights on, not an innovator.

[Anonymous Coward]

At least when I turn it off on an Apple device it stays off. I'm done with Google trying to shovel whatever excrement they dreamed up down by throat with a pile driver.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sort of. Apparently it can still be found with the Find My application, so I'd love to know (a) how that works and (b) how you can really switch it off properly. Maybe just disable the Find My functionality?