Apple(AAPL, Financial) has announced generative AI with ChatGPT-style integration. This represents a bold step in Apple's efforts to remain relevant against other tech companies that have advanced their AI initiatives significantly.
However, Apple is not the only company that has embraced the interest by integrating ChatGPT into its platform; this move also presents a new cost structure that may define the usage metrics. In the upcoming iOS 18.2 release, Apple has integrated system preferences that control daily ChatGPT usage and has added enhancements to the ChatGPT Plus subscription. The cost of this service is $19.99 monthly, and considering that Apple has cut other subscription costs in half, it might apply its usual 30% cut on these fees.
This form of monetization is relatively rare in the broader AI space, which initially saw competitors such as Google and Samsung providing AI upgrades for free to foster use dependency and demonstrate value. A clear strategic decision Apple made was to switch to the freemium model from the beginning of its implementation, which could be risky because it would make users uncomfortable paying for such services directly.
The core and extended consequences of Apple's AI strategy hypothesis are pretty consequential. Unlike other social platforms that are contemplating charging for their AI services, Apple has cemented the model by charging upfront, creating markers that may define future expectations and trends among consumers, as well as the whole mobile and, later, even the desktop market.
Apple's slow but strategic rollout of these AI features, coupled with its prominent marketing, underscores the company's careful balancing act: entering new products and adopting modern technology in the production process while controlling consumer evaluation and willingness to bear the cost of the new product. How this strategy works on adopting Apple Intelligence will be important because Apple aims to revolutionize how users interact with AI across its gadgets.
