Earlier this week, Apple received good news when a judge ruled that its lucrative search deal with Google could continue. And per CNBC, the ruling offers Apple a simple, but winning path forward for the iPhone in AI centered around three words: “pay to play.”
‘Pay to play’ could be Apple’s AI solution, modeled after Google search deal
With Apple’s $20 billion search deal with Google now seemingly safe, investors see AI as one of the company’s other significant perceived threats.
But according to CNBC’s Jim Cramer, the court decision reveals a very bright future for Apple in AI.
Cramer said after the Google ruling: “Yesterday, Apple had no cards. Today they have all of the cards. Turns out Apple always had an AI strategy: pay to play. You pay them, not they pay you.”
Julie Coleman writes at CNBC:
Apple no longer has to worry about making a deal worth billions with a hyperscaler or AI company like Perplexity, Cramer said. Instead, big chat bot names will now have to compete for Apple’s spotlight, he continued, as the company boasts more than 1 billion active iPhone users. […] “There isn’t a clear winner right now in the chatbot space, but if you can pay Apple a fortune to make yours the default, someone’s going to write that check,” Cramer said.
In other words, Apple doesn’t need to worry about mastering its own AI technology.
Rather, it can make bank by striking a big deal with a leading AI company that wants access to Apple’s massive user base.
9to5Mac’s Take
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