no one knows how to do it right

It’s not a shot in the air. Both Apple and OpenAI are clear that the future of AI devices is not in the smartphone: It is on devices without a screen. Apple’s aims to be a kind of airtag with a microphone system and with which we can interact through the new Siri based on Gemini. The one from OpenAI, headphones that will be placed behind the ears and They will allow us to interact with their AI. The problem? No one has been able to demonstrate that these formats can be a commercial success.

The exhaustion of screens. The smartphone is exhausted as a format, we see it year after year. So much so that the only great revolution in recent years has to do with one of the few weak points that remained to be resolved: autonomy. 10,000mAh batteries They arrive to give us the three/four days of battery life that many users dreamed of, but the rest of the specifications are reaching the ceiling.

• Smartphones do not need more power or more RAMnot even for current AI.
• We are reaching the peak in screens: we cannot make them bigger nor can we make them shine much brighter.
• The classic format is the one that works, the folding ones have been failing for years.
• We have spent years with minimal improvements and clone models compared to their predecessors.

AI as a companion. Both OpenAI and Apple seem to be clear about something that companies like Humane failed at: small wearables are the device of the future. One that we can take everywhere, without the friction that using the smartphone requires (taking it out from wherever it is, unlocking, holding our hand).

The challenges. The problem is one that we have been dealing with for decades: no one is yet clear how to create a device that replaces the smartphone. Humane failed. Rabbit failedand there are no guarantees that giants like Apple or OpenAI will achieve it.

In fact, the information leaked to date warns of a very limited production for the launch of the device that Apple plans.

The hope. Until now, attempts to materialize AI in ultra-compact formats lacked something essential: the economic, technological and strategic muscle of companies like Apple or OpenAI. They also didn’t have the real pressure of an industry leader willing to lead the way and take the risk of defining a new standard.

Eyes on Apple. If Apple manages to be minimally competitive in AI—even if it needs to rely on partners like Google—the entire industry will look in its direction. Apple has never needed to be the first or invent a category to impose it. It is enough to get the format right for the rest of the market to take it as a reference.

Image | Xataka

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