Following Apple’s announcement of ‘Apple Intelligence‘ at WWDC 2024, anticipation is high for the upcoming wealth of AI features set to debut later this year. Recent rumors suggest Apple may seize the opportunity to monetize these capabilities by potentially introducing paid services. According to Mark Gurman’s latest newsletter, while Apple Intelligence will initially be free, Apple’s strategy includes leveraging these capabilities for long-term revenue. This could lead to the introduction of ‘Apple Intelligence+‘ featuring exclusive features behind a monthly subscription.
Apple Intelligence could follow the model of iCloud+ with a monthly subscription fee, or it might integrate into the Apple One subscription bundle.
If it all comes together, Apple could find itself in a strong position in a few years. The company will be less reliant on hardware tweaks to drive its business and will actually be making money from AI — something everyone in Silicon Valley is hoping to pull off.”- Mark Gurman
Gurman also suggests that if Apple chooses to monetize its own AI features, it could establish another revenue stream, potentially offsetting its historically slow pace of hardware upgrades. This strategy would reduce Apple’s reliance on hardware advancements to drive its business.
Samsung has already confirmed that it will offer Galaxy AI features for free until 2025, after which subscription charges will apply to certain AI features.
In addition to potential subscriptions for advanced Apple Intelligence capabilities, Apple has positioned itself to earn a share of revenue from users subscribing to paid tiers of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other third-party AI services. Gurman anticipates partnerships with Google and Anthropic for their AI offerings, and an alliance between Apple and Google is expected to be announced coinciding with the launch of Apple Intelligence alongside iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia betas this fall.
It’s noteworthy that Apple declined an AI partnership with Facebook due to privacy concerns, while actively seeking partnerships for the Chinese market where services like ChatGPT are not currently available.
Looking ahead, to fully unlock the capabilities of Apple Intelligence, users may need to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, or wait for the upcoming iPhone 16 series. Additionally, they may need to subscribe to a monthly service.
The key question remains which Apple Intelligence features will remain free and which will require a subscription. This decision will heavily influence user adoption and satisfaction. Moreover, whether users are willing to upgrade their iPhones solely for Apple Intelligence remains a significant point of interest. The unfolding of these developments will be closely watched as Apple prepares to officially launch or announce more details about Apple Intelligence later this fall.
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