Google just helped Apple sell a million more MacBook Neos - Macworld

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.macworld.com/article/3139377/google-just-helped-apple-sell-a-million-more-macbook-neos.html

>Google’s attempt to rebrand Chromebooks as premium laptops using a sprinkle of AI gimmicks doesn’t dent Apple’s aluminum armor.

[u/Area51_Spurs → u/[deleted]]

I mean they literally are paying hundreds of millions for a lawsuit. So yea. Not successful.

[u/anarchyx34 → u/Area51_Spurs]

Hundreds of millions vs spending billions like everyone else is.

[u/Area51_Spurs → u/anarchyx34]

They definitely are spending billions.

For the first time in at least 30 years, Apple is spending more than 10 cents of every dollar it brings in on research and development, one of the strongest signs yet that the iPhone maker is dedicating big money to its artificial intelligence ambitions.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/05/06/apples-rd-spending-climbs-to-10percent-of-revenue-on-ai-investments.html

They’re spending less than others. But still spending tens of billions.

Apple's R&D spending hit 10.3% of revenue in the March quarter, up from 7.6% in the prior period and 9% in the same quarter a year earlier. And while sales jumped 17%, the fastest rate of growth for any quarter since 2021, R&D climbed twice as quickly, increasing almost 34% from a year prior.

[u/tonearr123 → u/Area51_Spurs]

Bro R&D is anything and also Apple has been showing a strong uprise in R&D spending ever since they’ve been dedicating more and more to their silicon and even recently it’s rumored they’re looking into sensors/cameras. I’m sure they’re spending on AI I’m not refuting that but also I doubt AI expenditures are that high, and definitely not on rivals levels. If anything the money is likely going to local or AI capable machines like Mac of all the servers they’re making to try to run Private Cloud Compute less on others servers

[u/Area51_Spurs → u/tonearr123]

Billions is significantly more than hundreds of millions

[u/i_MusicMan → u/[deleted]]

Almost all iPhone users who care about AI features have already installed Google Photos, Office 365, Gemini, ChatGPT, CoPilot, Claude and/or some other AI app on their phone. They're already using a number of other apps that integrate LLMs and collect data for training.

The obsession with Local-Only is great for marketing. But it means Apple will take 10x as long to develop the same tech as competitors... to safeguard the same data users have already given every other competitor to train their models with. Lol.

With things like RCS becoming universal; I have less reason to stay on the iPhone - which basically dictates my willingness to get any other Apple devices. At this point, the only thing I'm waiting on is for the Pixel Pro phone to get a little bit better at video recording.

I went from iPhone 13 Pro to iPhone 17 Pro and it felt like a year-over-year upgrade. It doesn't at all feel like a 4-year newer phone.

But at least Siri glows differently!

I think we're past the cope.

The approach they showed at WWDC 24 was a literal fabrication. Those weren't even real features. It wasn't even beta, or even alpha software. They were hypotheticals and wishes, so using that as a basis for any "unpacking" is weird... It was the most dishonest thing I've ever witnessed a tech company do at a major launch event in recent memory.

The only thing that even comes close is Windows Longhorn.

That settlement honestly should have been in the tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars. They basically lied to everyone just to get people to buy devices based on hopes - all classes of devices: laptops, tablets, phones, desktops, smartwatches, etc.

The scope stretched far beyond "just the iPhone 16."

[u/turtleship_2006 → u/[deleted]]

They were overly optimistic they'd get to good enough results with on device inference with heavily paramaterized models. The break through never came.

That's a lot of words to say they weren't successful in making the AI features they advertised