Tim Cook will not be apprehensive that AI devices will dethrone the iPhone

Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan used yesterday’s earnings name to press Tim Cook on a fast-spreading investor fear: will AI-first devices finally make screens—and subsequently the iPhone—out of date? Mohan cited voice pins, pocket assistants, and different screen-free gadgets that promise hands-free AI interactions and requested how shortly such kind elements may dent Apple’s core product. Cook replied with a agency defence of the smartphone’s central function and a refined trace that any future {hardware} Apple ships will complement, not change, the iPhone.

Cook reminded listeners that the handset already handles an unmatched vary of jobs, from personal messaging {and professional} pictures to safe funds and gaming. Then he added a direct evaluation: “It’s difficult to see a world where iPhone’s not living in it, and that doesn’t mean we are not thinking about other things as well, but I think that the devices are likely to be complementary devices, not substitution.” His reply units clear expectations that Apple is exploring new AI-centric {hardware} however sees these concepts as satellites within the ecosystem reasonably than heirs to the smartphone throne.

The numbers behind Apple’s quarter again up Cook’s confidence. iPhone income climbed 13 per cent year-over-year to 44.6 billion {dollars} because the iPhone 16 Pro Max led a higher-storage combine. Nearly half of patrons got here from gadgets 4 or extra years previous, underscoring that core telephone demand stays resilient even whereas early AI wearables seize headlines. Cook emphasised that Apple Intelligence options already run on-device inside iPhone 16, delivering personal textual content rewriting, picture cleanup, and native translation with no cloud hand-off. Those capabilities will deepen when a customized Siri arrives in 2026, additional anchoring the handset because the hub for context-aware computing.

Cook shared throughout the identical earnings name that iPhone 16 reputation has surpassed iPhone 15 with gross sales up “strong double digits”. Apple’s iOS 26 developer beta additionally topped Apple’s all-time adoption chart, which exhibits that person curiosity in iPhone continues to be on the upwards development.