The Cupertino-based tech company has dominated the smartphone market since the original iPhone launched in 2007, though Cue has now said AI paired with wearable devices could replace the traditional smartphone.
During the Google Search antitrust trial yesterday (07.05.25), the Apple executive said: “You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now, as crazy as it sounds.
“The only way you truly have true competition is when you have technology shifts. Technology shifts create these opportunities. AI is a new technology shift, and it’s creating new opportunities for new entrants.”
Cue added one of the “best things” Apple has ever done was making its iPod - once one of the most popular smart devices ever until it was discontinued in 2022 - obsolete by incorporating its functionalities into the iPhone.
He explained: “We killed the iPod ourselves with the iPhone.
“Most companies have a very difficult time killing themselves when new technology comes along because you're afraid, why would you kill the golden goose, in a sense.
“And so, what I see generally is new technologies come about, new companies get formed, the incumbents have a hard time with it.”
As well as iPhones, Cue also commented on Apple’s push into AI, and said the company was “actively looking” into overhauling its Safari web browser on its devices by focusing on AI-powered search engines.
This would be a major loss to Google, which has had a $20 billion-a-year deal with Apple to make its search engine the default option on Apple devices since 2002.
Cue noted Safari searches on Apple products had fallen for the first time last month, and pointed to the rise of AI utilisation for the decrease in the browser’s usage.
As a result, the Apple executive said he believed AI search providers from the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity AI Inc. would eventually replace standard search engines, and so the company would consider bringing those options to Apple devices in the future.
He said: “We will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default.”
