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Apple's physical discipline
A bad physical product costs billions and billions of dollars. Apple has never had an iPhone recall. The care, diligence, and fierceness in the supply chain that go into that are very different from what goes into making great AI.
Customers and cost
Apple owns access to customers, so suppliers come to it, and it can get suppliers for its AI as needed. AI could also run on the device, where Apple wouldn't even pay for inference because the customer's electricity does the work. Today it uses Google Cloud and NVIDIA chips.
Microsoft's mobile lesson
Microsoft didn't miss mobile. It was early, but its mobile was a small PC, because it assumed the PC would always be the center. Apple reset and made the phone a phone instead of an accessory to the Mac. The open question is whether Apple falls into the same trap, assuming the phone will always be the center while ambient AI spreads across devices and the home.
Why is a hardware recall so expensive?
A recall means shipping replacement units, paying for the returns, and writing off defective stock, all multiplied by millions of devices. The damage to the brand can outlast the repair costs. Samsung's 2016 Galaxy Note 7 recall cost the company billions of dollars in operating profit, according to its own earnings reports.
How can AI run on a phone for free?
When a model runs on the device, the phone's own chip does the calculation, powered by the owner's battery. No server has to answer the request, so the maker pays no inference bill. Apple built its first Neural Engine, a block of the chip meant for machine learning, into the A11 Bionic in 2017.
How did Microsoft's early mobile effort differ from the iPhone?
Microsoft shipped Pocket PC software in 2000, with a stylus, small windows, and a Start menu in the style of Windows. The iPhone arrived in 2007 with a touchscreen designed to be used with fingers. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 Mobile in December 2019.
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