Apple's AI strategy may not necessarily be to deliver the best AI apps it can produce, but to deliver an improved AI app store that could debut at WWDC.
Apple, like many other technology companies, is working hard to introduce AI elements into its operating systems and software, and could potentially launch these products to consumers as early as 2024. But Apple may have other plans for how to make money from AI.
speaking CNBC On Monday, Ben Reitzes, head of technology research at Melius Research, said Apple will lay the groundwork for a new AI App Store in June. This will include details on how consumers can obtain AI apps from various vendors.
Reitzes explains why, citing other Apple stores that have become industry-changing behemoths. Apple, he argues, “has a history of persuading many leaders to build apps or do things with them as they complete the ecosystem.”
Although not entirely related, for example, analysts suggest Steve Jobs talk to record labels to get on board with his vision of $1 per download and $1 per song before creating the iTunes store.
More relevant is the iPhone App Store. To that end, Reitzes points out that Apple only made a few of the apps, but it convinced others to make them.
Reitzes believes it's the same story again, but for AI. Apple will offer its own AI services, but the company is in discussions with other companies to offer AI apps for sale as part of its AI App Store.
“We believe that the reason Tim Cook and his team are running around talking to their rivals is because they are tapping into their inner Steve’s powers of persuasion,” Melius Research said in a research note published Monday.
Reitzes predicted that Apple would detail at WWDC how AI apps will be available on the App Store, complete with their own apps, AI assistants, and Siri upgrades. It is expected that we will at least get a glimpse of how AI will flow into Apple's services business.
AI app store
The concept of an App Store for AI is not entirely new as other analysts have suggested the same. For example, last February Wedbush wrote that Apple would push AI and eventually create a “separate AI App Store.”
Wedbush also wrote that Apple is expected to discuss the concept internally at WWDC. Whether developers will participate in that conversation is another matter.
Reitzes' comments about how Apple has talked to others, including Google, about adding listings to its AI-only app store may also have some basis in fact. Apple has reportedly been in talks with companies including Baidu to address generative AI services in China, with the conversation possibly straying to the topic of a dedicated app store.
Apple has also been in discussions with Google to license the search giant's Gemini AI to bring AI improvements to Siri. Like many other AI services, Google Gemini is already accessible through apps accessible on the App Store, so there will be little difficulty including it in a dedicated AI store.
WWDC 2024 will be held in early June. The event has not yet been announced.