Apple Intelligence: What Microsoft Missed With Copilot

Microsoft put AI into devices a few months ago with the launch of Copilot+. It caught Google and Apple napping and looks poised to own the AI ​​space with OpenAI and ChatGPT.

However, Microsoft’s implementation was so flawed that it’s unclear whether anyone is using these Copilot+ features now. remember Still being held back, and buyers are confused about what an AI PC is or isn’t, because there are no desktop AI PCs, gaming AI PCs, or workstation AI PCs on the market or on the near-term horizon.

This gave both Apple and Google time to close the competitive gap. apple announcement Its Apple Intelligence initiative was launched in June and then last week so Apple users should have more desktop and smartphone AI users than Windows users. Google is also starting to roll out AI features, so both companies are taking advantage of Microsoft’s extremely poor performance.

The big difference for Apple is that it has started offering AI experiences with 15-minute sessions at Apple Stores so that Apple users and potential users can play with the technology and become more familiar with it. There is no similar effort from Microsoft or Google.

Let’s discuss how it can benefit Apple and its users during this AI rollout. We’ll then close with my product of the week, my new favorite phone: the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, which I now carry around every day.

Problems with people and properties

We are creatures of habit. We like to do things the way we’ve always done them. This is problematic for companies like Microsoft and feature-rich products like Office 365 and Windows because their advantage over other offerings is more features.

What makes this problematic is that if users don’t use a large number of features, it’s relatively easy to migrate those users to a competing offering because the competition doesn’t have to bridge all the features, just the ones most people actually use. Look, which, while not as complete as Office 365, does what most people want it to do and is much cheaper at belt-tightening.

If you don’t get people using and liking the parts of your product that make it unique, even dominant, a low-cost competitor can easily shift those users to their competing offering. To overcome this, if you have a complex product or a unique set of features, like, say, Copilot+, you need to promote using these features and remind users of their value. Otherwise, your ability to retain your customer base is significantly reduced.

Internet Explorer example

We’ve seen this happen with Internet Explorer. Initially blindsided by Netscape Navigator, Microsoft executed exceptionally well and eventually stole the market.

Netscape’s downfall was due to two strategic missteps. First, they openly challenged Microsoft. Then, instead of making Navigator the front end of a suite of mandatory Web tools, Netscape chose to compete directly with Microsoft Office. The move put them on Microsoft’s turf, a battlefield they were ill-equipped to win. Netscape lost that battle and became part of history.

Then, after rising to about 98% market share, Microsoft defunded IE much as it now largely defunds Windows. Google came out with a version of its Chrome browser that seemed to work better than IE, and Microsoft took market share.

Microsoft Edge – the browser that followed Internet Explorer – is now based on Google’s Chromium technology, Google owns the browser space and isn’t repeating the mistakes Netscape and Microsoft made.

Microsoft’s artificial intelligence is screwed up

Generative AI, the current advanced iteration of AI, is moving aggressively to market primarily through the cloud. Microsoft introduced Copilot+ with two features: Cocreator and Recall, both of which, on paper, were very useful. Then Microsoft had to roll back the recall because its presentation raised security concerns without mitigating them, and CoCritor alone was essentially Dal-e but running natively.

Also, the only PCs that will run these two apps were initially configured with Snapdragon X processors and focused on people who value high portability but not performance. This is a group that generally wants the basics and doesn’t pursue new features or capabilities like performance users, gamers, and workstation users.

So, not only was one of the two apps held back, but the people targeted by the hardware weren’t the ones that would normally be the first movers for AI tools.

By far, this is one of the worst misfires I’ve ever seen.

Apple’s advanced AI approach

Apple is rolling out its AI tools to its entire customer base, not just a subset of laptop users. Also, if done right, the aforementioned in-store experiences will convince users to try and eventually use these AI tools, which can be used much faster than Microsoft’s approach.

As a result, although Apple’s AI implementation still lags Microsoft’s, more people are likely to use it, so it should be a stronger competitive differentiator. That’s because an unused feature has no value, and Apple is doing a much better job of using Apple Intelligence than Microsoft is with just Copilot.

wrap up

While being the first to enter a market, as Microsoft did, can provide a significant competitive advantage, poor performance allows competing firms to slipstream this initial effort and capture the market created by the first mover. This is what happened with Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Microsoft was late in that race, but it outpaced Netscape.

The closest was the Google Pixel Fold, which was a good phone but lacked a powerful processor and was less feature-rich than my old and obsolete Duo 2 phone, which had to be retired. then Pixel 9 Pro Fold Turns out that although it lacks a Qualcomm processor (which it should have as a premium phone), the Google processor it packs is much more powerful than the older Pixel Fold, and it supports the head-mounted display found on the older Pixel Fold. did not

As a result, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has become a living dream. It has all-day battery life even though I read most of the day, fast inductive charging (although the magnet on the phone is weaker than previous phones, so inductive charging is a bit more difficult to mount), the camera is very good, and the sound quality is decent for a small device.

At around $1,300, it’s not a cheap phone, but it’s worth the money. When I’m still lusting after that Huawei Tri-Fold The phone I can’t get my hands on, this Google phone is definitely less expensive and more practical.

The phone is handy for watching movies on the plane or in the car, great for reading and browsing the web, and has a head-mounted display and a keyboard. It can even sub for my laptop in a pinch. I’m very happy with the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and it’s my product of the week.