"...Those 1.6 billion active iPhones will all be running AI, AI that can only be accessed through Apple's orifices. And Apple will happily make hundreds of billions in AI profit along the way. Unless, of course, the AI ecosystem treats the app store as damage, and beings to route around it. That seems to be the case with AI coding apps, which allow end users to build, well, whatever the hell they want to build. That reads as dangerous to the Apple's corporate interests, and yesterday, the company did exactly what one might expect a dinosaur to do when faced with mammals scurrying around its feet. It stomped."
The happy part: You’re still a great writer, a pleasure to read, always stimulating. And of course, you’re right. But I think even you may be underplaying the parlous state that Apple is in - masked by the ubiquity of the iPhone and the uniquely high margins it manages to accrue from its core, a manufacturing business tied to a choiceless OS. Apple in recent decades has lost more business opportunities than it’s won. It lost its music monopoly to Spotify, lost its mobile OS monopoly to Google, lost streaming video to virtually everyone, and is in the process of losing AI.
omg really? if you own apple stock which many of us do you seek to maximize its value! how else do apple, nvidia, microsoft, tesla grow? it may not be ethical but it certainly is legal in good ole capitalist usa! i worked for rebel apple in the lean years. trust me...it was not fun.
Aaron C.
4d
Maybe there will be a new App Store somewhere else
Mike Ritter
4d
🤮
Apple is the Cesar Chavez of tech.
Given enough time, any rebel becomes a tyrant -very French of me, I know :D
Andy Edmonds
5d
Current software distribution mechanisms are not ready for the immediate future, for sure. FWIW, the amazon tv store approval queue is lightning fast :-)
Thank you for reminding me of the glory days of Apple and MacWeek. It was one of my first jobs out of college too. Thank you for giving me a chance to write there.
a very thorny walled-garden.
A sharp and necessary critique of the Gatekeeper mindset in the AI era, John Battelle The 'Stomp' from Apple was predictable, but perhaps futile. As you pointed out, AI Coding Apps are the 'mammals' that shift power back to the end-users, allowing them to bypass traditional 'orifices' and innovate without permission. In 2026, the real Value Creation won't come from controlled ecosystems, but from the ability to build and 'route around' old-school corporate interests. True Progress happens when AI democratizes creation to the point where even the biggest dinosaurs can't suppress the scurrying of 1.6 billion potential builders. The walls of the App Store are high, but AI is learning to fly over them