Apple watchers put on several useful pieces of data during the company’sThursday pay callfor Q3 2023 . sales agreement of iPhones , iPads , and Macs were down year on class , for example , yet overall profit was up thanks to bighearted margin . And the Services category had a stellar quarter , thanks in part to Apple lead a billion ante up subscription on an install foundation of two billion devices .
Another interesting tidbit , however , graze up during the enquiry - and - answer session with analyst that followed the official announcements , which you may heed toon Apple ’s site . ( The part I ’m going to talk about begins at 51:44 . ) Late on in the sitting , the executives were posed a motion about AI by Sydney Ho , a Deutsche Bank analyst , and Tim Cook was instant that the technology stay a potent priority for the company .
Ho : Your strategy on AI seems quite different than many of your match . At least , you do n’t talk much about that , about how much you endue in it . mayhap you’re able to exposit a morsel on that . But , related to that , how do you see your investing in this area turning into financial performance in the future tense ? [ … ]
Captain Cook : We regard AI and automobile learning as nucleus , fundamental technology that are inherent to virtually every merchandise that we build . [ At ] WWDC in June , we announced some characteristic that will be come in iOS 17 this gloam likePersonal VoiceandLive Voicemail . antecedently we had harbinger life - saving features like fall spotting and crash detection and ECG . None of these characteristic that I just note – and many , many more – would be potential without AI and motorcar learning . So it ’s utterly vital to us .
And of course we ’ve been doing research across a panoptic range of AI engineering science , admit generative AI , for years . We ’re blend to continue investment , and innovating , and responsibly advancing our products with these technology , with the goal of enriching people ’s lives . That ’s what it ’s all about for us . As you know , we tend to announce thing as they come to market , that ’s our M.O. , and I ’d like to stick to that .
It ’s prominent , in comparison with some previous reply from both Cook and CFO Luca Maestri in the same call , how smoothly articulated Cook is on this subject : that line about “ responsibly move on our product with these engineering , with the destination of enriching mass ’s life story ” sounds highly rehearsed . It ’s evident that this is something to which he has consecrate a keen deal of thinking .
Readers could be forgiven for think that AI has become the belated in a foresighted line of essentially nonmeaningful corporate buzzword , and it would be natural for Cook to prepare a few soundbites on such a blistering - button theme . But there stay the sense that Applehasn’tyet hold up up to the AI enthusiasm that it professes so oftentimes ; that AI is indeed present in almost all Apple intersection , but stay on peripheral rather than integral .
And , most strikingly for the average Apple customer , the company has n’t yet unveil the major , flagship AI project that has matte imminent for a long time . artificial insemination - powered feature film in o updates are one matter , but many of us long for Apple to build a full - on AI product : Siri 2.0 , akaProject Bobcat , or SiriGPT .