🧠 A͢p͢p͢l͢e͢’͢s͢ ͢L͢a͢t͢e͢ ͢A͢I͢ ͢E͢n͢t͢r͢a͢n͢c͢e͢:͢ I have been thinking about something a senior exec said about AI this month. Their late entrant opportunity is in privacy-protecting AI running locally on the phone. “Here’s how Apple wins: 1) Executing well. This is 100% in our control. 2) Competitive failings: We have no control over this. The greatest gift Apple was ever handed in its history was Windows. It made us look like geniuses. 3) Timing. Consider Apple Pay. It does not take a genius to know you want to pay with your phone. For years, others failed as they had to change every point-of-sale terminal. When the terminals had the NFC chips, we knew now was the time.” • Apple Pay will process $10 trillion of transactions in 2025. “AI is the greatest gift ever to Apple. Yes, with Siri, we misstepped and screwed up. We also had AI products we did not launch because they weren’t good enough." "Our opportunity is in the phone. Your phone knows more about you than you do. You forget things, and you lie to yourself. The phone knows. Not Apple. The phone.” [i.e., the data does not leave the phone] “Are you willing to share your private data with a big AI company? Our view is that there is no way you will share this with outside companies. The phone can personalize with data. That’s where we will shine. Consider your EA — they know you better than any other co-worker. My phone knows every text between me and my wife. The phone can figure out more about my shopping habits from my chats with my wife than any other data source. Next year is the big year to prove that.” And then, a few days ago, Jony Ive and Sam Altman did an interview. OpenAi acquired Ive’s startup to build a new AI-centric hardware device. They shared similar vibes, heralding from an Apple design heritage. Sam Altman: “What does it mean that this machine will know everything you have known, read, said.” They estimate that their new hardware design will be released in two years. Perhaps the time is right. P.S. Can’t wait to see the EU reaction :)